PO-1476 Covid-19 era and radiotherapy: psychological changes in oncological patients

Abstract

Purpose or Objective: To evaluate the emotional state of oncological patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT) during the COVID-19 Lockdown. Materials and Methods: To evaluate patients’anxiety, depression and distress, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) and Distress Thermometer (DT) were used. Patients were divided into 3 groups: those who underwent radiotherapy before COVID-19 emergency (July–December 2019) (Group 1), in early stage of COVID-19 emergency (January– February 2020) (Group 2) and one week (wk) before the Lockdown (Group 3). For Group 3 the evaluations of anxiety, depression and distress were conducted at 3 different time points: at the RT beginning(1-wk before Lockdown,T0), during RT (1-wk after the start of Lockdown, T1) and at the RT ending (during Lockdown, T2). Results: From July 2019 to 8th March 2020, on 452 treated patients, 223 (49.3%) accepted to participate in psychooncological support program: 80 (35.9%) were in Group 1, 121 (54.2%) in Group 2 and 22 (9.9%) in Group 3. Anxiety was higher in Groups 1 and 2 and distress was higher in Group 3 (p 0.01;p 0.0001) while no differences were noted for depression (p 0.1). Regarding Group 3, respect to baseline (T0), all considered emotional states increased at T1 and decreased at T2: anxiety and depression increased considerably from T0 to T1 and decreased from T1 to T2 (p 0.00001, p 0.001 respectively);distress also showed the same trend, but the differences was not statistically significative (p 0.1). All patients completed their planned RT without delays. Conclusion: The study revealed optimal compliance to RT despite the increase of anxiety and distress COVID19-related. The appropriate supportive care in term of psychologic support must be prioritized for all oncological patients, even more during pandemic.