The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lung cancer diagnosis

Objective: Hospital admissions have been affected by lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lung cancer diagnosis process. Methods: Patients who attended our clinic after the first official case of COVID-19 in Turkey were diagnosed with new lung cancer via bronchoscopy and/or endobronchial ultrasound, and were diagnosed during the fifteen months preceding the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed retrospectively. Results: A total of 336 lung cancer patients with a mean age of 64.4±8.9 years, 89.6% male, 197 pre-pandemic, and 139 during the pandemic were included in the study. In this study, 17.6% of the patients applied to the hospital during the lockdown. During the pandemic, the median age of patients was younger, the smoking rate was higher, the rate of admissions with cough was lower (p=0.010), the hemoptysis rate was higher (p=0.012), T stage (p=0.008) increased, and N stage (p=0.001) decreased in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients. There was no significant difference in lung cancer staging between the groups in lockdown. There was no significant difference in metastatic rates between the pandemic and pre-pandemic groups. During the pandemic, the rate of comorbidities decreased in lung cancer patients. The rate of cancer surgery did not change, but the rate of chemotherapy decreased during the pandemic. Conclusions: The number of newly diagnosed lung cancer cases decreased, and stages changed during the pandemic. Lung cancer diagnosis delays and disease burden are expected to rise in the future.