Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Demographic of Oncological Patients and the Use of Pet/Ct Utilization

Yüksel, Ceren; Ersoy, Berkin; Cengiz, Elif İpek; Şenödeyici, Eylül; Yıldırım, Gizem; Şahintürk, Dengiz Koray; Koşucu, Mustafa Alperen; Demir, Selin Soyluoğlu

doi:10.4274/tmsj.galenos.2022.09.02.02

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Currently, there are conflicting results published in the literature in regard to the effect of COVID-19 on the number of staging PET/CTs [20][21][22], ranging from no impact to decreased numbers of patients being scanned [1,4,5]. The partly contradictory results in different regions of the world are reviewed by Carvalho et al [24], where out of 135 articles, only 53% had indicators referring to adequate cancer staging where stable or lower stages at diagnosis were observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, some reports suggest that for the purpose of not delaying treatment, some patients skipped the imaging workup. On the other hand, we only found a few works addressing the staging of patients with PET/CT during the pandemic [19][20][21][22], and even fewer that considered the second year of the pandemic where diagnostic delays might have been more apparent [20][21][22]. It is, however, largely unknown if this impact was transient, limiting itself to the first year of the pandemic, or continued through the second year of the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Staging Oncologic PET/CT Imaging and Patient Outcome in a Public Healthcare Context: Overview and Follow Up of the First Two Years of the Pandemic

Kohan,

Menon,

Murad

et al. 2023

Cancers

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis, staging and outcome of a selected population throughout the first two years of the pandemic, we evaluated oncology patients undergoing PET/CT at our institution. A retrospective population of lung cancer, melanoma, lymphoma and head and neck cancer patients staged using PET/CT during the first 6 months of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 were included for analysis. The year in which the PET was performed was our exposure variable, and our two main outcomes were stage at the time of the PET/CT and overall survival (OS). A total of 1572 PET/CTs were performed for staging purposes during the first 6 months of 2019, 2020 and 2021. The median age was 66 (IQR 16), and 915 (58%) were males. The most prevalent staged cancer was lung cancer (643, 41%). The univariate analysis of staging at PET/CT and OS by year of PET/CT were not significantly different. The multivariate Cox regression of non-COVID-19 significantly different variables at univariate analysis and the year of PET/CT determined that lung cancer (HR 1.76 CI95 1.23–2.53, p < 0.05), stage III (HR 3.63 CI95 2.21–5.98, p < 0.05), stage IV (HR 11.06 CI95 7.04–17.36, p < 0.05) and age at diagnosis (HR 1.04 CI95 1.02–1.05, p < 0.05) had increased risks of death. We did not find significantly higher stages or reduced OS when assessing the year PET/CT was performed. Furthermore, OS was not significantly modified by the year patients were staged, even when controlled for non-COVID-19 significant variables (age, type of cancer, stage and gender).

show abstract