Cancer diagnoses in young people reduced during the first-wave of the pandemic although the rate of ICU admissions for cancer increased
Cancer diagnoses in young people fell during the first-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic but the likelihood of of admission to an intensive unit for cancers diagnosed during the period actually increased. This was the main finding of a study by researchers from Oxford University, UK presented at the National Cancer Research Institute conference.
It has become widely accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on cancer services in the majority of countries across the world. In the UK, for example, in a survey by Cancer Research UK in July 2020, it was found that 2 in 3 cancer patients reported that on how their cancer care had been impacted and that ratings of overall cancer care as ‘very good’ decreased from 75% ‘before lockdown started’ to 37% ‘after lockdown started’. Furthermore, other research showed that in England, there were approximately 3.4 million fewer key diagnostic tests performed between March and August 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.
Given the delays in cancer diagnostic services, the Oxford team sought to investigate how in England, during the first wave of the pandemic, these delays affected childhood, teenager and young adult cancer incidence rates, diagnostic and treatment time-intervals and cancer-related intensive care (ICU) admissions. They used the QResearch database, which is derived from the anonymised health records of over 35 million patients. In addition, since QReseaerch is also linked to linked to hospital admission, mortality and cancer diagnoses data held with a disease register, it was possible for the researchers to make links between these three factors. For the present study, researchers focused on central nervous system (CNS) tumours, lymphomas, leukaemias, sarcomas and renal tumours in those aged up to 25 years of age. They compared the incidence of these cancer diagnoses between 1st February to the 15th August 2020 and compared their findings to the three preceding pre-pandemic years. As well as the number of diagnoses, the team also analysed the length of time before treatment started after diagnosis and whether or not these patients were diagnosed after being admitted to intensive care.
Findings
A total of 2607 cancer diagnoses were made from 1st January 2017-15th August 2020, with 380 during the pandemic. Overall, this represented a 17% reduction (95% CI -38% to – 6%) in the incidence-rate-ratio during the first wave of the pandemic. In particular there was a 38% (95% CI -52% to -21%)] decrease in CNS tumours and a 28% (95% CI -45% to -5%) reduction in lymphomas. Interestingly, the researchers observed that childhood cancers that were diagnosed during the pandemic were more than twice as likely to be associated with an ICU admissions (adjusted odd ratio, OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.33 – 3.47).
The researchers also observed that the median time to diagnosis was not significantly different across the different time periods (+4.5 days, 95% CI -20.5 days to +29.5) and the median time to treatment was actually shorter during the pandemic (-0.7 days, 95% CI -1.1 to -0.30).
The authors concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic led to substantial reduction in the detection of cancer in young adults but was also associated with an increase in cancer-related ICU admissions. They suggested that this was probably due to more severe baseline disease at diagnosis and that overall, their findings demonstrate a clear disruption to cancer diagnostic pathways in this age group which need to be addressed urgently in the recovery phase of the pandemic.
Citation
Saatci D et al. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer diagnostic pathways in children, teenagers and young adults: a cohort study in England. NCRI conference 2021
