Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Department, Taleghani Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2023 May;6(5):e1801. doi: 10.1002/cnr2.1801. Epub 2023 Mar 16.
Global COVID-19 pandemic has affected cancer care systems. Recent studies show that the number of cases diagnosed with cancer has drastically decreased compared to the same period before the pandemic. Therefore, we are confronted with delayed diagnosis of critical cancers.
The aim of this study is to investigate whether the stage of known cancers has been affected by delayed diagnosis and to compare the stages of head and neck cancers diagnosed during and before the pandemic.
The present study was conducted on 132 patients with malignant head and neck tumors referred to the otolaryngology, head and neck cancer department of Taleghani Hospital from 2019 to 2021. The stage of cancers was compared between two groups of patients with head and neck malignancy referred to the Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Department of the Taleghani Hospital before and during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The results from tumor (T), nodes (N), and metastases (M) (TNM) staging (p-value = .015) and T score (value = 0.045) showed that the stage of tumor diagnosed in patients during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased compared to patients diagnosed with a tumor before pandemic.
In the present study, it was observed that the early symptoms of malignant head and neck tumors have been neglected by patients during COVID-19 pandemic and resulted in delayed diagnosis. This result may be explained by the fear of COVID-19 infection in patients, which discouraged them from visiting a doctor at healthcare centers.
全球 COVID-19 大流行影响了癌症治疗系统。最近的研究表明，与大流行前同期相比，被诊断患有癌症的病例数量急剧下降。因此，我们面临着严重癌症诊断延迟的问题。
本研究旨在调查已知癌症的分期是否因诊断延迟而受到影响，并比较大流行期间和之前诊断出的头颈部癌症的分期。
本研究共纳入 132 例 2019 年至 2021 年就诊于塔莱加尼医院耳鼻喉科头颈部癌症科的恶性头颈部肿瘤患者。比较了 COVID-19 爆发前后就诊于塔莱加尼医院耳鼻喉科头颈部癌症科的头颈部恶性肿瘤患者的癌症分期。
肿瘤 (T)、淋巴结 (N) 和转移 (M) (TNM) 分期（p 值=0.015）和 T 评分（p 值=0.045）的结果表明，COVID-19 大流行期间诊断的肿瘤患者的肿瘤分期显著高于大流行前诊断的患者。
本研究观察到 COVID-19 大流行期间恶性头颈部肿瘤的早期症状被患者忽视，导致诊断延迟。这一结果可能是由于患者对 COVID-19 感染的恐惧，阻止他们前往医疗机构就诊。
