Management of surgical oncology patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: Short-term results

Abstract

Aim: In our study, the effect of the pandemic on the treatment of surgical oncology patients and\rits short-term results were investigated. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic has put a heavy\rburden on healthcare institutions. During this period, treatment of many diseases, including cancer\rpatients, have been disrupted.\rMethods: Our study was designed as a retrospective, observational study. It was investigated to what\rextent the treatment of patients receiving cancer treatment was affected and what changes were made\rin the management of patients diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic period.\rResults: The 148 cancer cases were discussed at Multidisciplinary Meetings (MDM) held in our\rclinic between December 2019 and May 2020. Of the patients, 76 (51.4%) had gastrointestinal\rsystem malignancies, 39 (26.3%) had breast malignancies, and the rest had other malignancies. There\rwas no statistically significant difference between the mean number of cancer cases discussed in\rMDMs held in pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. However, it was observed that there was a\rstatistically significant decrease in the number of operations performed during the pandemic period\r(p < 0.001). The treatment protocol of 14 malignancy patients was changed due to the pandemic.\rOf these patients, 10 were diagnosed with colorectal, 2 with gastric, 1 with breast cancer and 1 with\rgastrointestinal stromal tumor.\rConclusion: According to the short-term results in our study, delaying surgical treatment for a while\rin some oncological patients and administration of systemic chemotherapy during this period when\rconsidered necessary did not have a significant negative effect on the course of the disease.