Lower rates of digestive cancer treatment in older patients due to pandemic lockdowns

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a sharp decline in treatment for older patients with newly diagnosed cancers of the digestive system, a recent study has found.

“To avoid a decrease in newly treated cancers during future lockdown periods, access to healthcare will have to be modified,” the researchers said, adding that while such a decline has yet to show any significant impacts on short-term mortality, long-term follow-ups are still needed.

The present retrospective, observational, cohort study included data from 7,882 patients age ≥65 years; all had been newly diagnosed with a digestive system cancer between January 2018 and August 2020. The primary outcome was the initiation of first cancer treatment. Analyses were also conducted according to different time periods: before, during, and after the lockdown.

There was a reduction in the percentage of newly treated digestive cancers in 2020 as compared to the previous years. In particular, new treatments dropped by 42.4 percent during lockdown. Corresponding reductions in the pre- and postlockdown periods were 2.5 percent and 17.0 percent.

Even when looking at 2020 along, the pandemic lockdown led to a statistically significant decrease in new treatments for digestive cancers relative to the prelockdown period (p=0.014). A slight increase was observed postlockdown but did not reach previous levels.

Despite a decline in treatment initiation, the researchers observed no significant change in the 3-month overall survival in 2020 as compared to the same calendar periods in the previous years.