Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Care: One Year Retrospective Study of Cancer Patients Affected With COVID-19 at a Tertiary Cancer Care Hospital in Eastern India

Abstract

Aims and Objectives: The information regarding the nature of the novel corona virus, its spread, implications and treatment were controversial from the very beginning. Whether Cancer patients would do worse was not known to us, although the common belief was that they were high risk group considering the low immunity. To know these we have looked into our data over last one year. Materials and Methods: After Ethical committee permission we have done a retrospective analysis of our data from April, 2020 to March, 2021. The following were looked into- the footfall of new and follow up cases and compared them with the number of the preceding year.We also looked into the age, sex, type of cancer, stages at presentation, symptomatology, time to recovery, complications, delay in treatment and outcome. Results: There was 50% reduction in the number of new and follow up cases combined compared to the previous year. Majority of the 420 cancer patients who were infected were in the fifth decade, the commonest site being Head neck & haematological malignancies. Most of the cancer patients were asymptomatic. There was an average delay in treatment of 5 to 6 weeks. Only 1.67% succumbed to Covid before being referred outside, most of whom had haematological malignancies with multiple comorbidities. Conclusions: The pandemic has significantly affected the care of Cancer patients with less footfall, late presentation, delayed treatment with potentially worse outcome. Interestingly, although they have decreased immunity, majority were asymptomatic. Most of the fatalities were in the haemato-oncological malignancies with multiple co-morbidities. Funding Information: None. Declaration of Interests: None. Ethics Approval Statement: Clearance received from the Institute Ethics committee.