Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Division of Gastric Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Surg Today. 2022 Feb;52(2):231-238. doi: 10.1007/s00595-021-02329-y. Epub 2021 Jul 20.
The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected socioeconomic and healthcare systems in many countries. Accordingly, many individuals may have canceled their annual health-check programs, including esophagogastroduodenoscopy, which would have resulted in lower numbers of newly diagnosed patients with gastric cancer in comparison to other times.
Questionnaires were distributed to 62 hospitals every week from May 2020 to August 2020 (total 744) through mailing lists of the Stomach Cancer Study Group of the Japan Clinical Oncology Group. The number of patients with gastric cancer and hospital systems during the COVID-19 pandemic were surveyed.
In total, 74% (551 out of 744) of the questionnaires were answered and analyzed. In early May, approximately 50% of hospitals had to restrict surgical slots due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they gradually loosened the restrictions thereafter. The number of gastrectomies was < 80% that of the same period in the previous year, and hospitals in Tokyo were seriously affected by a 50% decrease in the number of gastrectomies.
The number of gastrectomies was lower than that in the previous year. Further multi-center follow-up studies are required to evaluate the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the clinical outcomes of patients with gastric cancer.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的传播对许多国家的社会经济和医疗保健系统产生了影响。因此，许多人可能已经取消了他们的年度健康检查计划，包括食管胃十二指肠镜检查，这将导致新诊断的胃癌患者数量比其他时期减少。
2020 年 5 月至 8 月，通过日本临床肿瘤学会胃癌研究组的邮寄名单，每周向 62 家医院分发问卷（共 744 份）。调查了 COVID-19 大流行期间胃癌患者和医院系统的数量。
共回答并分析了 744 份问卷中的 74%（551 份）。在 5 月初，由于 COVID-19 大流行，大约 50%的医院不得不限制手术时间。然而，此后他们逐渐放宽了限制。胃切除术的数量不到去年同期的 80%，东京的医院受到胃切除术数量减少 50%的严重影响。
胃切除术的数量低于去年。需要进一步进行多中心随访研究，以评估 COVID-19 对胃癌患者临床结局的长期影响。
