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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on bone and soft tissue sarcoma patients’ consultation and diagnosis

Authors :
Ryunosuke Oyama
Makoto Endo
Eijiro Shimada
Tomoya Matsunobu
Nokitaka Setsu
Shin Ishihara
Masaya Kanahori
Kengo Kawaguchi
Takeshi Hirose
Akira Nabeshima
Toshifumi Fujiwara
Masato Yoshimoto
Akira Maekawa
Masuo Hanada
Nobuhiko Yokoyama
Yoshihiro Matsumoto
Yasuharu Nakashima
Source :
Scientific Reports, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
Nature Portfolio, 2024.

Abstract

Abstract The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic negatively affected the diagnosis and treatment of several cancer types. However, this pandemic’s exact impact and extent on bone and soft tissue sarcomas need to be clarified. We aimed to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency declaration by the local government on consultation behavior and clinical stage at diagnosis of bone and soft tissue sarcoma. A total of 403 patients diagnosed with bone and soft tissue sarcoma who initially visited three sarcoma treatment hospitals between January 2018 and December 2021 were included. The monthly number of newly diagnosed soft tissue sarcoma patients was reduced by 25%, and the proportion of soft tissue patients with stage IV disease at diagnosis significantly increased by 9% during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the monthly number of new primary bone and soft tissue sarcoma patients significantly decreased by 43% during the state of emergency declaration. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on soft tissue sarcoma patients’ consultation behavior and increased the proportion of advanced-stage patients at initial diagnosis. An emergency declaration by the local government also negatively affected primary bone and soft tissue sarcoma patients’ consultation behavior.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20452322
Volume :
14
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Scientific Reports
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.095716d02344fe0b59d7615d567fb04
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-71830-4