Colorectal cancer screening and treatment before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at a Southeast Texas community hospital.

Authors

Ahmed Abdelhakeem

Ahmed Abdelhakeem

Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX

Ahmed Abdelhakeem , Muhammad Siddiqi , Nigil Thaimuriyil , Chelsey Peters , Samantha Blevins , Tahir A. Naqvi

Organizations

Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX

Research Funding

No funding received
None.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic imposed significant restraints on healthcare systems, raising concerns regarding care delays and excess cancer-related deaths. We aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and the time to treatment initiation (TTI) for cases with a confirmed diagnosis of CRC. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in which we included all patients who underwent screening colonoscopy between April 2019 and March 2021 at our hospital. Patients with a diagnosis of CRC have been confirmed with the data from our cancer center to check if they could continue cancer staging workup and start their treatment. Patients were stratified into pre-COVID-19 (April 2019-March 2020) and COVID-19 (April 2020-March 2021) groups. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analysis were applied using SAS software, version 9.4. Results: A total of 1439 patients underwent screening colonoscopies during the study period. 746 during pre-COVID-19 group, and 693 during COVID-19 group (p = 0.1624). In the pre-COVID-19 group, 47 patients were found to have CRC, and 25 patients (53%) continued cancer staging workup and started treatment in our cancer center. Among 36 patients with confirmed CRC diagnosis in the COVID-19 group, only five patients (14%) continued cancer staging workup and started treatment (p = 0.0003). All patients with confirmed CRC in the COVID -19 group had localized disease compared to 25 patients (96%) in the pre-COVID-19 group. TTI in the COVID-19 group (mean of 21 days ± 13.3) was shorter compared to the pre-COVID-19 group (mean of 33 days ± 46.7) (p = 0.025). Comparative analysis between the study groups didn’t show any statistically significant difference based on age, sex, race, or insurance status. Conclusions: In our hospital, the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t appear to affect the accessibility to CRC screening or delay in TTI. However, a limited number of patients with confirmed CRC during the COVID-19 pandemic were able to continue cancer staging workup and receive treatment.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2023 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Publication Only

Session Title

Publication Only: Gastrointestinal Cancer—Colorectal and Anal

Track

Gastrointestinal Cancer—Colorectal and Anal

Sub Track

Epidemiology/Outcomes

Citation

J Clin Oncol 41, 2023 (suppl 16; abstr e15522)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2023.41.16_suppl.e15522

Abstract #

e15522

Abstract Disclosures

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