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American Association for Cancer Research, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 2023

DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.epi-23-0066

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Impact on the Volume of Pathology Reports Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in SEER Cancer Registries

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Abstract Background: Health care procedures including cancer screening and diagnosis were interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic; The extent of this impact on cancer care in the U.S. is not fully understood. We investigated pathology report volume as a reflection of trends in oncology services pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. Methods: Electronic pathology reports were obtained from 11 U.S. central cancer registries from NCI’s SEER Program. The reports were sorted by cancer site and document type using a validated algorithm. Joinpoint regression was used to model temporal trends from January 2018-February 2020, project expected counts from March 2020-February 2021 and calculate observed-to-expected ratios. Results were stratified by sex, age, cancer site and report type. Results: During the first three months of the pandemic, pathology report volume decreased by 25.5% and 17.4% for biopsy and surgery reports, respectively. The 12-month O/E ratio (Mar 2020-Feb 2021) was lowest for women (O/E 0.90) and patients 65 yrs. and older (O/E 0.91) and lower for cancers with screening (melanoma skin, O/E 0.86; breast, O/E 0.88; lung O/E 0.89, prostate, O/E 0.90; colorectal, O/E 0.91) when compared to all other cancers combined. Conclusions: These findings indicate a decrease in cancer diagnosis, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This decrease in the number of pathology reports may result in a stage shift causing a subsequent longer-term impact on survival patterns. Impact: Investigation on the longer-term impact of the pandemic on pathology services is vital to understand if cancer care delivery levels continue to be affected.