Browsing: COVID-19 Pandemic

The latest news effecting cancer patients and oncology service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic

By Professor Craig Underhill. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only reshaped our daily lives but has also revolutionised the landscape of clinical trials, improving equity of access for patients with cancer. This was the focus of our study recently published in JAMA Oncology. The study highlights the significant uptake of digital technologies in clinical trial conduct, particularly emphasising the emergence of telehealth consultations and decentralised clinical trials (DCT). As face-to-face interactions became limited due to pandemic restrictions, the healthcare sector rapidly embraced digital solutions to ensure continuity in patient care and trial operations. This surge in digital adoption, driven by…

While the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer considered a public health emergency, pandemic-related stressors continue to impact cancer care across the board. New research published this week in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS) describes how surgery for colorectal cancer—the third most commonly diagnosed cancer—was considerably disrupted during the pandemic. In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 105,517 colorectal cancer cases, researchers noted a 17.3% overall decline in colorectal cancer surgeries in 2020 compared to 2019. There was also a notable shift toward more advanced disease in the same period, with researchers finding that patients who underwent surgery in 2020 were more…

Prostate cancer diagnoses in 20,000 men could have been missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a new study from the University of Surrey and the University of Oxford, UK. Increased waiting times and changes in people’s behaviour in seeking medical attention during the pandemic could be responsible for missed diagnoses. During this study, scientists sought to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on diagnoses and mortality rates for prostate cancer in England. Using data from OpenSAFELY, comprising of 24 million electronic healthcare records of people registered with primary care providers, scientists analysed prostate cancer incidence between January 2015…

Amid the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a comprehensive analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) highlights a concerning trend: a significant decrease in cancer diagnoses across the United States throughout 2020. The study, titled “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cancer Diagnoses in the US: A Population-Based Analysis,” sheds light on the profound disruption to cancer screening and detection during the pandemic. Led by a team of researchers from diverse institutions, this population-based cross-sectional study examined cancer incidence trends using data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The analysis encompassed…

A review of COVID-19 studies globally has revealed reductions in breast cancer screening participation during 2020, with differences between geographic regions and healthcare settings. The findings, published today in eLife, suggest the need for continued monitoring of access to breast cancer screening and early diagnosis services, to help identify if prevention services may need strengthening to increase participation for disadvantaged groups. Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, with 2.3 million cases diagnosed and 685,000 deaths in 2020. Mammography-based screening programs allow for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer to help improve patient outcomes, but these programs were…

For many, the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic seems over. However, for patients whose immune systems are compromised by cancer or by cancer therapies, fear of COVID-19 infection and severe disease remains very real. Currently, CDC guidance recommends that immunocompromised patients receive COVID-19 booster shots “as needed.” While this flexibility is useful for patients with complex medical conditions, more specific guidance is lacking as to when additional COVID-19 boosting would be most effective. New research led by scientists at Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte provides this critically needed information. The rate at which additional COVID-19 boosters…

Cancer patients saw a significant fall in Covid-related hospitalisations and mortality following the rollout of vaccines in the first panoramic study of its kind. The research published in Scientific Reports looked at the impact of the global pandemic on case-outcome rates for cancer patients across a 21-month period from November 2020 to August 2022. The team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham found that hospitalisations in the period fell from nearly one in three patients (30.58%) to one in 13 patients (7.45%); and, case-mortality rates fell from more than one in five patients (20.53%) to less than one in 30…

Research by the University of Southampton, UK, into the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in people with lymphoma has shown that repeated vaccination increases their ability to prevent infection from the virus, particularly after four doses. The finding, from the two-year PROSECO study, is important because blood cancer patients have compromised immune systems – either as a result of cancer, or from cancer treatments. EXCLUSIVE TO THE ONCOLOGY NETWORK: FREE REGISTRATION FOR HCPs This leaves them more vulnerable to COVID-19 than other people and raises questions over how well they respond to vaccination. Latest findings from the study are published in the…

With each breath, humans exhale more than 1,000 distinct molecules, producing a unique chemical fingerprint or “breathprint” rich with clues about what’s going on inside the body. For decades, scientists have sought to harness that information, turning to dogs, rats and even bees to literally sniff out cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis and more. Scientists from CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA, have made an important leap forward in the quest to diagnose disease using exhaled breath, reporting that a new laser-based breathalyser powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can detect COVID-19 in real-time with excellent accuracy.…

In a new study, American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers discovered deaths with cancer as the underlying or primary cause decreased in the United States during the first year of the pandemic in 2020 compared to 2019, continuing the decreasing trend from prior years. In contrast, mortality rates with cancer as a contributing cause were higher in 2020 compared to 2019, reversing the decreasing trend from prior years. The study was published today in the Journal Oncology Practice (JOP). “Individuals living with cancer were at higher risk of COVID-19 infection and experiencing more severe symptoms due to their health conditions and treatment-related immune suppression,” said Jingxuan…

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