Objectives Since being declared a global pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus had a significant impact on the entire globe. The pandemic has placed a heavy burden on healthcare systems worldwide, and cancer patients are particularly prone. Despite the fact that initial international reports suggest delays in breast cancer (BC) diagnosis and screening programs, the Egyptian context requires additional research on this topic. To examine whether COVID-19 has changed the pattern of disease presentation before and after the pandemic, focusing on the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) staging of the disease at the initial presentation Methods This single-center, retrospective study of female BC patients initially diagnosed at Baheya Foundation was conducted during the following time frames: from Jan 2019 to Jan 2020 (Pre COVID-19 cohort) and from Mar 2020 to Mar 2021 (post–COVID-19 cohort). We compared the two cohorts in terms of clinical characteristics, tumor characteristics, and the number of days from presentation to treatment. Our primary endpoint was the difference in the TNM stage of BC at the initial presentation. Results This analysis included 710 BC patients, 350 from the pre-COVID cohort and 360 from the post-COVID group. We detected a 27.9% increase in late-stage BC (stages III-IV) in the post-pandemic cohort compared to the pre-pandemic (60.1% vs. 47%, p < 0.001). The time from diagnosis to commencement of treatment was significantly longer (28.34 ± 18.845 vs 36.04 ± 23.641 days, p < 0.001) in the post-COVID cohort (mean difference = 7.702, 95% CI 4.54–10.85, p < 0.001). A higher percentage of patients in the post-pandemic cohort received systemic neoadjuvant therapy ( p-value for Exact’s test for all treatment options = 0.001). Conclusions The number of patients requiring systemic neoadjuvant chemotherapy increased dramatically in the post-pandemic group with advanced stages of BC at presentation. This study highlights the need for proper management of cancer patients during any future pandemic.

No abstract

Background: Curcumin is derived from Turmeric which is a spice with an old history in the oriental world. For this reason, it was a subject for continuous research over years and some studies reported preliminary positive results in arthritis and metabolic syndrome. When COVID-19 declared as a global pandemic, debates exploded again regarding its effects in mitigating deleterious effects of the viral infection. However, being a traditional remedy flooded readers with thousands of publications, some of these was scientifically rigid and others were fraudulent. We aim to use VOSviewer software to visualize scientific landscape in this topic, to highlight the trends and identify main supporting bodies. Methods: We searched Web of Science (WOS) core collection database for publications between December 2019 and April 2022. Data collected include: year of publication, keywords, type of the document, author names, affiliations, abstracts and number of citations. VOSviewer 1.6.18 was used to analyze co-citation, co-occurrence, and publication trends. Analysis considered one weight attribute which is total link strength attributes. Results: A total of 205 publications (N=205) were included in the analysis. Most studies were original research articles (50.7%). Mean citation count of the top 10 cited articles was 37.9 (range 22 and 111). Country of corresponding author of these 10 studies was India in 5 (50%), Iran in 3 (30%). Organizational analysis revealed 5 Iranian universities as being the main research bodies with total link strengths (TLS) of 100. Co-occurrence of keywords identified viral inhibition, oxidative stress, molecular docking, NF-kB pathway as the most frequent mentioned keywords. Trend analysis showed negative trend with less publications covering this topic, chronologically. Conclusion: Curcumin resided within the oriental tradition for years, it is no surprise that main supporting bodies were oriental. VOSviewer provides an easy, user-friendly options to handle bibliographic data.