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Oncology

Changes in the Number of US Patients With Newly Identified Cancer Before and During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic

Educational Objective
To understand the changes in number of US Patients With Newly Identified Cancer Before and During COVID-19

1 Credit CME

JAMA Network Open

Published Online: August 4, 2020

Research Letter

Article Information and Disclosures

Harvey W. Kaufman, MD¹;

Zhen Chen, MS¹;

Justin Niles, MA¹;

Yuri Fesko, MD¹

Author Affiliations

¹Quest Diagnostics, Secaucus, New Jersey

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In response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends, “to conserve health system resources and reduce patient contact with health care facilities,… that cancer screening procedures that require clinic/center visits, such as screening mammograms and colonoscopy, be postponed for the time being.”¹ A Washington Post headline reported, “Patients with heart attacks, strokes, and even appendicitis vanish from hospitals.”² A study from 9 high-volume US cardiac catheterization laboratories³ found a 38% decrease in patients treated for ST-elevation myocardial infarction, considered a life-threatening condition. In this study, we analyzed weekly changes in the number of patients with newly identified cancer before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Article Information

Accepted for Publication: July 8, 2020.

Published: August 4, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17267

Correction: This article was corrected on September 10, 2020, to fix the percentage of patients included in the COVID-19 period and the number of women with pancreatic cancer in the baseline and COVID-19 periods, to correct errors in the date ranges that appear in the Figure legend, and to add a column for esophageal cancer in the Figure.

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND License. © 2020 Kaufman HW et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Harvey W. Kaufman, MD, Quest Diagnostics, 500 Plaza Dr, Secaucus, NJ 07094 (harvey.w.kaufman@questdiagnostics.com).

Author Contributions: Dr Kaufman and Ms Chen had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: All authors.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Chen.

Drafting of the manuscript: Kaufman, Chen, Niles.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.

Statistical analysis: Chen, Niles.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Fesko.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Drs Kaufman and Fesko, Ms Chen, and Mr Niles reported being employed by and owning stock in Quest Diagnostics outside the submitted work.

References

American Society of Clinical Oncology. Cancer screening, diagnosis, staging, and surveillance. Updated June 22, 2020. Accessed July 13, 2020. https://www.asco.org/asco-coronavirus-resources/care-individuals-cancer-during-covid-19/cancer-screening-diagnosis-staging

Bernstein L , Sellers FS . Patients with heart attacks, strokes and even appendicitis vanish from hospitals. Published April 19, 2020. Accessed April 27, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/patients-with-heart-attacks-strokes-and-even-appendicitis-vanish-from-hospitals/2020/04/19/9ca3ef24-7eb4-11ea-9040-68981f488eed_story.html

Garcia S , Albaghdadi MS , Meraj PM , et al. Reduction in ST-segment elevation cardiac catheterization laboratory activations in the United States during COVID-19 pandemic. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020;75(22):2871-2872. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2020.04.011 PubMed Google Scholar Crossref

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. Cancer stat facts: esophageal cancer. Accessed April 27, 2020. https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/esoph.html

IJzerman M, Emery J. Is a delayed cancer diagnosis a consequence of COVID-19? Published April 30, 2020. Accessed May 1, 2020. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/is-a-delayed-cancer-diagnosis-a-consequence-of-covid-19

Lai A , Pasea L , Banerjee A , et al . Estimating excess mortality in people with cancer and multimorbidity in the COVID-19 emergency. medRxiv. Preprint posted online June 1, 2020. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.34254.82242

AMA CME Accreditation Information

Credit Designation Statement: The American Medical Association designates this Journal-based CME activity activity for a maximum of 1.00  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to:

1.00 Medical Knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;;
1.00 Self-Assessment points in the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery’s (ABOHNS) Continuing Certification program;
1.00 MOC points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program;
1.00 Lifelong Learning points in the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Continuing Certification program; and
1.00 CME points in the American Board of Surgery’s (ABS) Continuing Certification program

It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting MOC credit.