2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer (ePosters)-EP06.01-017. Clinical Impact of SARS-CoV2 Pandemic in the Diagnosis of Early-Stage Thoracic Tumours

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A study was conducted to evaluate whether the increase in medical evaluations during the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the detection of early-stage thoracic tumors. The study analyzed data from patients diagnosed with thoracic tumors between March 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic did not seem to increase the diagnosis of thoracic tumors. Only 5.3% of newly diagnosed tumors were related to suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, and these patients were not diagnosed at earlier stages. When symptoms at diagnosis were evaluated, it was found that asymptomatic patients presented in earlier stages, with the majority being incidental findings during follow-up for other pathologies. Symptomatic patients mostly presented with locally advanced or metastatic diseases, and no changes were observed compared to studies prior to the pandemic. <br /><br />The study included a total of 378 patients, with 67.7% being male and 32.3% female. The average age of the patients was 67 years. Smoking habits were analyzed, with 11.1% being never smokers, 50% former smokers, 36.2% current smokers, and 2.7% unknown. The stage at diagnosis was categorized as follows: 34.4% stage I, 9.8% stage II, 25.9% stage III, 28.8% stage IV, and 1.1% unknown. The most common histology was adenocarcinoma (50.8%), followed by squamous carcinoma (24.3%) and small cell carcinoma (10.3%). <br /><br />Symptoms reported at diagnosis included 34.7% asymptomatic cases, with others reporting anorexia, asthenia, dyspnea, pain, haemoptysis, weight loss, cough, and other symptoms. Only 5.3% of diagnoses were due to SARS-CoV-2 suspicion or disease. In asymptomatic patients, the causes of diagnosis were primarily follow-up of non-oncological pathologies (56.6%), follow-up of another tumor (17.5%), preoperative study (7.0%), and extension study of another tumor (6.3%). <br /><br />In conclusion, the study found that the COVID-19 pandemic did not increase the diagnosis of thoracic tumors. Lung cancer diagnosed in patients due to SARS-CoV-2 infection was not detected at earlier stages. Asymptomatic patients diagnosed incidentally were more frequently in localized stages compared to symptomatic patients.

Asset Subtitle

Yago Garitaonaindía Díaz

Meta Tag

Speaker Yago Garitaonaindía Díaz

Topic Management of Lung Cancer in the Era of COVID-36

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic

medical evaluations

thoracic tumors

early-stage detection

SARS-CoV-2 infection

symptoms at diagnosis

asymptomatic patients

smoking habits

stage at diagnosis

common histology