Impact of COVID-19 on breast cancer stage at discovery and time to treatment in Cote d'Or, France

ABSTRACT

State of the matterDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting bottlenecks in the French healthcare system, the management of patients with COVID-19 has been prioritized over that of patients with other pathologies, in particular chronic diseases. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the discovery stage of cancers diagnosed in an organized breast cancer screening program, as well as the impact on the time to supported. Material and methodsAll women aged 50 to 74 for whom cancer has been diagnosed in Cote d'Or as part of the national organized breast cancer screening program (first or second reading) from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020 have were included in this study. Using data from pathological anatomy laboratories, clinical centers, and the breast and gynecological cancer registry in Cote d'Or, France, we collected sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment data from all patients. We compared data from the year 2019 (pre-COVID) with that of the year 2020 (COVID). ResultsIn this study, we did not observe any change in the stage of discovery of the cancer at the time of diagnosis, nor any change in the therapeutic strategy. However, we observed a significant increase in infiltrated tumors, a decrease in in situ tumors, and the finding of larger clinical size of in situ tumors after the COVID pandemic. ConclusionWhile these results are reassuring, continued monitoring is needed to determine post-pandemic effects.