Outbreaks Show Fewer US Cancer Patients Seeking Care Since Pandemic Inception: Study

Representative photo (File photo: ANI)

PA: As the Covid-19 pandemic progressed during the first months of 2020, a new study found a significant reduction in the number of patients with cancer-related care across the United States. Cancer incidence, including screening, initial diagnosis, second opinion, and appointment to start treatment.
Anecdotal reports and physician surveys suggest a dramatic decline. But this study, published at JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, is the largest ever to measure the impact of pandemics on normal cancer treatment activities. This study was published in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics.
“It’s not surprising that the pandemic has had a major impact on patients seeking care, but the results have a significant impact on future cancer patients and their potential burden, so a large organization-agnostic data set is needed. We are moving forward in hospitals where it was important to test and quantify these trends using.” Dr. Christopher McNair, Dean of Cancer Informatics at SKCC and the lead author of the study.
McNair worked with Jack London, PhD, and Honorary Cancer Biology Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University to leverage the TriNetX platform to create the Covid and Cancer Research Network (CCRN). The CCRN consists of data from 20 medical institutions representing more than 28 million patients across the United States, including aggregated data of electronic medical records such as diagnostics, procedures, laboratory tests and demographics. The team used CCRN to compare the number of cancer-related encounters from January to April 2019 with the number from January to April 2020.
McNair and team found a significant reduction in patients with all neoplasm-related encounters, including malignant, benign, and in situ disease (-56.9%). New incidence neoplasm (-74%); malignant disease (-50%); and new incidence malignancy (-65.2%). The researchers also said University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust Similar trends were seen in the UK. However, the researchers warned that these findings came from a single hospital, so more data is needed to compare trends outside the United States.
“The decline itself wasn’t unexpected, but it was amazing how big it was, using a cohort of so big nations,” McNair said.
The researchers also examined these encounters by cancer type. Patient encounters have decreased for all types of cancer, melanoma (-51.8%), breast cancer (-47.7%), and prostate cancer (-49.1%) more than lung cancer (-39.1%) Colorectal cancer (-39.9%), and blood cancer (-39.1%).
Furthermore, McNair et al. found that mammograms in April 2020 decreased by 89.2% compared to April 2019, and colorectal cancer screening decreased by 84.5% during the same period. The researchers plan to follow up the screening within the next few months as pandemics reduce the viral mitigation efforts that help predict the number of patients who continue to delay cancer screening.
“The most important finding in our study was a significant reduction in cancer screening. The fact that this trend was very intense across the country conveys the widespread impact of pandemic and mitigation efforts. “The virus of the time,” McNair said.
SKCC participates in several key initiatives designed to elucidate how Covid-19 affects cancer patients and clinical care. This includes the Covid-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) research registry for Covid-19 on tumors. CCC19 is an international registry database that tracks the outcome of cancer patients diagnosed with Covid-19. The ASCO Registry is collecting baseline and long-term data from national oncology practices to investigate how viruses affect cancer treatment delivery and patient outcomes.
According to McNair, these registries are important for understanding both the short-term and long-term implications of the trends seen here.
Researchers continue to investigate trends from summer to autumn, especially as the effects of the states are more severe. McNair said it’s important to understand trends in cancer diagnosis to determine whether delays in screening translate into an increased number of patients with end-stage disease.
“We are pleased to announce that MBA, PhD and Karen E. Knudsen, Executive Vice Presidents of Oncology,” said: Services, Jefferson Health, and Enterprise Director Sydney Kimmel Cancer Center.. “This report is a national arms call and underscores the urgent need to resume screening and early detection of cancer.”