Cancer Res Treat.  2023 Oct;55(4):1222-1230. 10.4143/crt.2023.364.

Health-Seeking Behavior Returning to Normalcy Overcoming COVID-19 Threat in Breast Cancer

• Lee EG
• Han Y
• Lee DE
• Moon HG
• Koh HW
• Kim EK
• Jung SY

• KMID: 2547796
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4143/crt.2023.364

Abstract

Purpose
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has significantly impacted the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Our study investigated the change in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer with the progress of COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials and Methods
The study group comprised 6,514 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients between January 1, 2019, and February 28, 2021. The patients were divided into two groups: pre–COVID-19 period (3,182; January 2019 to December 2019) and COVID-19 pandemic period (3,332; January 2020 to February 2021). Clinicopathological information related to the first treatment after breast cancer diagnosis was retrospectively collected and analyzed in the two groups.
Results
Among the 6,514 breast cancer patients, 3,182 were in the pre–COVID-19 period and 3,332 were in the COVID-19 pandemic period. According to our evaluation, the least breast cancer diagnosis (21.8%) was seen in the first quarter of 2020. The diagnosis increased gradually except for the fourth quarter in 2020. While early-stage breast cancer was diagnosed 1,601 (48.1%) during the COVID-19 pandemic (p=0.001), the number of surgical treatments increased 4.6% (p < 0.001), and the treatment time was slightly shorter 2 days (p=0.001). The breast cancer subtype distribution was not statistically different between the pre–COVID-19 and COVID-19 period groups.
Conclusion
In the early stages of the pandemic, the number of breast cancer cases temporarily decreased; however, they stabilized soon, and no significant differences could be identified in the diagnosis and treatment when compared to the period before the pandemic.

Keyword

Breast neoplasms; COVID-19; Diagnosis; Therapeutics

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Number of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients after onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at three hospitals.

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  Fig. 2 Trends in breast cancer stage proportion after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

Reference

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