• Zhou Sha, Kejie Chang, Jiaoping Mi, Zibin Liang, Liyang Hu, Fengjiao Long, Haiyan Shi, Zhong Lin, Xiaojin Wang, and Xiaofeng Pei.
• Department of Thoracic Oncology, Cancer Center of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China.
• Ann Palliat Med. 2020 Sep 1; 9 (5): 3373-3378.

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) poses an unprecedented challenge to health and epidemic prevention system, especially the healthcare of patients with cancer. We sought to study the impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer patients in our center.MethodsWe initiated a retrospectively study to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer patients in our center, who were accepted for routine anticancer treatment before the epidemic and planned to return to hospital in January and February of 2020.ResultsA total of 161 cases of lung cancer were included in the final analysis. As of April 15, 95 patients had delayed their return visit, and 47 cases were finally designated as having delayed admission during the epidemic and having to discontinue or delay their regular anticancer treatments. Of these 47 delayed patients, 33 were evaluated for tumor status using a computed tomography scan, 6 of these 33 cases (18.18%) were diagnosed as progressive disease (PD), and 5 cases did not return for visit.ConclusionsThis is the first study investigating impact of COVID-19 on non-COVID-19 lung cancer patients during the pandemic. The study demonstrates the significant impact of the COVID-19 crisis on oncological care, indicating the need for appropriate change of treatment decisions and continued follow-up and psycho-oncological support during this pandemic.

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