Evaluating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on New Cancer Diagnoses and Oncology Care in Manitoba.

Kathleen M Decker,Pascal Lambert,Allison Feely,Oliver Bucher,Rashmi Koul,Maclean Thiessen,Julian O Kim,Marshall Pitz,Pamela Hebbard,Tunji Fatoye,Piotr Czaykowski

doi:10.3390/curroncol28040269

Kathleen M Decker, Pascal Lambert + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol28040269

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Abstract

Individuals with cancer are vulnerable to infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. Physical distancing, the reallocation of health care resources, and the implementation of procedures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 may also have serious consequences for people with cancer. We evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on new cancer diagnoses and oncology care in Manitoba, Canada using an interrupted time series design and data from the Manitoba Cancer Registry and CancerCare Manitoba’s (CCMB) electronic medical record. In April 2020, there was a 23% decrease in new cancer diagnoses, a 21% decrease in pathology reports, and a 43% reduction in surgical resections. There was no difference in new cancer diagnoses by August 2020, surgery by July 2020, and pathology reports by September 2020. From April 2020 to June 2021, there was a 13% decrease in radiotherapy (RT) fractions, an 18% decrease in UCC visits, and a 52% decrease in in-person visits. There was no change in intravenous chemotherapy visits per month, first RT visits, or overall patient visits. The impact of COVID-19 on shifts in the stage at diagnosis and survival will be assessed in future analyses.

Highlights

Individuals diagnosed with cancer have proven vulnerable to infection with SARS-CoV-2 infections, the virus that causes COVID-19 [1,2,3,4]
At the start of the pandemic, there was an immediate and substantial decrease in the number of new cancer diagnoses and cancerrelated pathology reports. This decrease might be related to challenges associated with the diagnosis of cancer including lower level of primary healthcare utilization, suspended or limited screening programs, and decreases in diagnostic services such computed tomography scans (CTs), biopsies, and surgery
In the months following the study period, we may see a rebound in the number of diagnoses to make up for the decreases observed in cancer diagnoses, this depends on the impact of the second and third waves of the pandemic on the health care system

Summary

Introduction

Individuals diagnosed with cancer have proven vulnerable to infection with SARS-CoV-2 infections, the virus that causes COVID-19 [1,2,3,4]. The reallocation of health care resources, and the need to implement new procedures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 may have serious consequences for people with cancer including delays in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment [5,6,7,8,9,10]. It is important that we understand how COVID-19 has affected the care of individuals with cancer to inform service delivery both during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new cancer diagnoses and oncology care at a system level in Manitoba, Canada from

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