KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate changes in cervical screening, excision treatments, and cancer incidence.
- Researchers noticed a decrease in appointments for older and rural patients with cervical cancer.
Lavinia Balan and the team aimed to perform a retrospective analysis of the volume of cervical screening tests, the number of patients treated with an excision method, and the incidence of invasive cervical cancer and non-invasive cervical lesions during a pandemic and pre-pandemic period of 24 months.
They performed an inclusive analysis comparing 404 patients who underwent cervical cone biopsy for cervical cancer. The study examined patients’ specimens based on histopathological characteristics and categorized cervical lesions based on pap smear results.
About the results, there was a statistically significant age difference between the 2 study periods. The mean age was 32 years before the pandemic and 35 years during the pandemic (P-value > 0.05). The biggest patient loss ratio identified by age group was in the 50-59-year group, with a 14.53% loss in the pre-pandemic period and a 9.1% loss in the pandemic period. During the pandemic period, patients from rural areas presented in the clinical trial at a lower rate of 39.52% (83 patients) with cervical cancer compared to 60.47% (127 patients) from urban areas.
There was also a higher percentage of patients experiencing cervicorrhagia as a clinical manifestation in the pandemic period versus the pre-pandemic period. Additionally, there was an 8% increase in more severe lesions newly diagnosed during the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period, which had statistical significance.
The study concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic did not drastically affect patient with cervical cancer addressability, though it led to fewer appointments among those aged 50-59 years and those residing in rural areas. An increase in cervical bleeding as a consultation reason during the pandemic period correlated with higher lesion severity on pap smear and cervical biopsy.
The study was sponsored by the VICTOR BABES UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND PHARMACY TIMISOARA.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38929526/
Balan L, Secosan C, Sorop VB, et al. (2024). “Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic on the Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer and Precursor Lesions-A Single-Center Retrospective Study.” Medicina (Kaunas). 2024 May 30;60(6):909. doi: 10.3390/medicina60060909. PMID: 38929526; PMCID: PMC11206154.
