Changes in the Percentage of Patients Treated for Cancer Before and After the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic: A Retrospective Observational Study.

OBJECTIVES

After the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak, a state of emergency was imposed to stop the spread of infection, resulting in restrictions on routine medical examinations. As a result, there has been a decline in cancer screening and detection. However, it is uncertain how many more cancer cases among routine outpatients have been detected recently.

METHODS

We retrospectively identified regular outpatients with no history of cancer treatment at the Juntendo University Hospital. The difference in the percentage of these patients who initiated cancer treatment within the following year, before and after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 33,417, 32,579, and 30,303 regular outpatients with no history of cancer treatment were identified for fiscal years 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. The percentage of these patients with new cancer treatment within the following fiscal year was 454 (1.36%) for 2018, 440 (1.35%) for 2019, and 416 (1.37%) for 2021. There was no statistically significant difference in the percentage of patients initiating cancer treatments before and after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (2018 vs. 2020, 2019 vs. 2020, respectively P = 0.88, 0.81) among patients who regularly visited outpatients at our hospital.

CONCLUSIONS

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had no effect on the percentage of regular outpatients newly treated for cancer.