Onesti Concetta Elisa, Vari Sabrina, Minghelli Denise, Nardozza Francesca, Rossi Barbara, Sperati Francesca, Checcucci Elisa, Faltyn Wioletta, Cercato Maria Cecilia, Cosimati Antonella, Salvatori Francesca, Biagini Roberto, Ciliberto Gennaro, Ferraresi Virginia, Maggi Gabriella
Sarcomas and Rare Tumors Unit, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy.
Psychology Unit, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 2;14:1078992. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1078992. eCollection 2023.
The COVID-19 outbreak had a negative psychological impact on cancer patients. In this study, we analyzed emotional distress and quality of life in patients diagnosed with sarcoma during the first year of the pandemic compared to the previous year.
We retrospectively enrolled patients with soft tissue, bone sarcoma, and aggressive benign musculoskeletal diseases diagnosed during the pandemic (COVID group) or the year before (control group) at the IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome. Patients who had undergone a psychological assessment with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the Distress Thermometer at diagnosis were included in the final analysis. We analyzed whether there is a difference in the various domains of quality of life between the two groups and whether there are changes over time in each group.
We enrolled 114 patients (72 control group; 42 COVID group), affected by soft tissue (64%), bone sarcoma (29%), and aggressive benign musculoskeletal diseases (7%). We did not observe significant differences in the health-related quality of life domains in the control and COVID groups, except for the financial domain ( = 0.039), with 9.7% vs. 23.8% of patients with a score > 0 in the control and COVID groups, respectively. We observed emotional distress at diagnosis in 48.6% of patients in the control group vs. 69.0% in the COVID group ( 0.034). In the control group, we observed an improvement in physical function ( 0.043) and in QoL ( 0.022), while in the COVID group, we observed a deterioration in role function ( 0.044) during follow-up. In the COVID group, 22.2% of patients were concerned about COVID-19, 61.1% by tumor, 91.1% stated that the pandemic worsened their subjective perception of cancer, and 19.4% perceived that their quality of care had worsened.
We observed a higher level of distress among patients diagnosed during the pandemic compared to the year before, probably due to the increased concern for both infection and cancer, the worsened perception of health status, and the perception of a poorer quality of health care.
新冠疫情对癌症患者产生了负面心理影响。在本研究中，我们分析了在疫情第一年被诊断为肉瘤的患者与上一年相比的情绪困扰和生活质量。
我们回顾性纳入了在罗马的IRCCS雷吉娜·埃琳娜国家癌症研究所于疫情期间（新冠组）或前一年（对照组）被诊断为软组织、骨肉瘤和侵袭性良性肌肉骨骼疾病的患者。最终分析纳入了在诊断时接受过欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织生活质量核心问卷（EORTC QLQ-C30）和痛苦温度计心理评估的患者。我们分析了两组在生活质量各个领域是否存在差异，以及每组随时间是否有变化。
我们纳入了114例患者（72例对照组；42例新冠组），其中受软组织疾病影响的占64%，骨肉瘤占29%，侵袭性良性肌肉骨骼疾病占7%。除财务领域外（P = 0.039），我们未观察到对照组和新冠组在健康相关生活质量领域存在显著差异，对照组和新冠组中得分>0的患者分别为9.7%和23.8%。我们观察到对照组48.6%的患者在诊断时有情绪困扰，而新冠组为69.0%（P = 0.034）。在对照组中，我们观察到随访期间身体功能（P = 0.043）和生活质量（P = 0.022）有所改善，而在新冠组中，我们观察到角色功能恶化（P = 0.044）。在新冠组中，22.2%的患者担心新冠病毒，61.1%担心肿瘤，91.1%表示疫情恶化了他们对癌症的主观感受，19.4%认为他们得到的医疗质量变差了。
我们观察到与前一年相比，在疫情期间被诊断的患者中痛苦程度更高，这可能是由于对感染和癌症的担忧增加、健康状况感知恶化以及对医疗质量较差的感知所致。
