Dauti Işıklar Aysun, Deniz Cem, Soyder Aykut, Güldoğan Nilgün, Yılmaz Ebru, Başaran Gül
Breast Health Center, Acıbadem Altunizade Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey.
Acıbadem University School of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
Eur J Breast Health. 2021 Jun 25;17(3):253-257. doi: 10.4274/ejbh.galenos.2021.6161. eCollection 2021 Jul.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has placed an unprecedented burden on healthcare systems and restricted resources for non-COVID patients worldwide. Treatment approaches and follow-up plans have been modified to prevent the risk of infection for patients and healthcare workers. Patients prefer to delay or cancel their treatments during the peak period of infection.
We retrospectively reviewed the characteristics of patients with breast cancer who were consulted at our outpatient clinic right after early COVID-19 peak in May and June 2020 and compared them with the same period in 2017 to 2019.
The number of patients who consulted at our outpatient medical oncology clinic declined in May and June 2020. This decline was regardless of stage and was larger in May than in June 2020. In general, the distribution of tumor subtypes [luminal, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) positive, and triple negative] was not different from 2017 to 2020. Less than half of the patients received adjuvant chemotherapy following early COVID-19 peak in May and June 2020. Few patients received chemotherapy for metastatic disease, whereas many metastatic patients received endocrine therapy. None of the consulted new patients had a non-invasive disease. More patients received endocrine therapy than chemotherapy.
The presentation patterns of patients with breast cancer after early COVID-19 peak differed from those during the same period in the last 3 years. The pandemic affected the number of new patients consulted and the way medical oncologists treat their patients.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）给全球医疗系统带来了前所未有的负担，并限制了非COVID患者的资源。治疗方法和随访计划已被修改，以防止患者和医护人员感染的风险。在感染高峰期，患者更倾向于推迟或取消治疗。
我们回顾性分析了2020年5月和6月COVID-19早期高峰过后在我们门诊咨询的乳腺癌患者的特征，并将其与2017年至2019年同期进行比较。
2020年5月和6月在我们门诊肿瘤内科咨询的患者数量有所下降。这种下降与分期无关，且2020年5月的下降幅度大于6月。总体而言，2017年至2020年肿瘤亚型（管腔型、人表皮生长因子受体2（HER-2）阳性和三阴性）的分布没有差异。2020年5月和6月COVID-19早期高峰过后，不到一半的患者接受了辅助化疗。很少有患者接受转移性疾病的化疗，而许多转移性患者接受了内分泌治疗。所有咨询的新患者均无原位癌。接受内分泌治疗的患者多于化疗患者。
COVID-19早期高峰过后乳腺癌患者的就诊模式与过去3年同期不同。疫情影响了新咨询患者的数量以及肿瘤内科医生治疗患者的方式。
