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Lessons learned after one year of COVID-19 from a urologist and radiotherapist view: A German survey on prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.
PLoS ONE 17:e0269827 (2022)
INTRODUCTION: Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, COVID-19 has changed the medical landscape. International recommendations for localized prostate cancer (PCa) include deferred treatment and adjusted therapeutic routines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To longitudinally evaluate changes in PCa treatment strategies in urological and radiotherapy departments in Germany, a link to a survey was sent to 134 institutions covering two representative baseline weeks prior to the pandemic and 13 weeks from March 2020 to February 2021. The questionnaire captured the numbers of radical prostatectomies, prostate biopsies and case numbers for conventional and hypofractionation radiotherapy. The results were evaluated using descriptive analyses. RESULTS: A total of 35% of the questionnaires were completed. PCa therapy increased by 6% in 2020 compared to 2019. At baseline, a total of 69 radiotherapy series and 164 radical prostatectomies (RPs) were documented. The decrease to 60% during the first wave of COVID-19 particularly affected low-risk PCa. The recovery throughout the summer months was followed by a renewed reduction to 58% at the end of 2020. After a gradual decline to 61% until July 2020, the number of prostate biopsies remained stable (89% to 98%) during the second wave. The use of RP fluctuated after an initial decrease without apparent prioritization of risk groups. Conventional fractionation was used in 66% of patients, followed by moderate hypofractionation (30%) and ultrahypofractionation (4%). One limitation was a potential selection bias of the selected weeks and the low response rate. CONCLUSION: While the diagnosis and therapy of PCa were affected in both waves of the pandemic, the interim increase between the peaks led to a higher total number of patients in 2020 than in 2019. Recommendations regarding prioritization and fractionation routines were implemented heterogeneously, leaving unexplored potential for future pandemic challenges.
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Language
english
Publication Year
2022
HGF-reported in Year
2022
ISSN (print) / ISBN
1932-6203
Journal
PLoS ONE
Quellenangaben
Volume: 17,
Issue: 6,
Article Number: e0269827
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publishing Place
Lawrence, Kan.
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Institute of Radiation Medicine (IRM)
POF-Topic(s)
30203 - Molecular Targets and Therapies
Research field(s)
Radiation Sciences
PSP Element(s)
G-501300-001
WOS ID
WOS:000843575700121
PubMed ID
35700180
Erfassungsdatum
2022-09-22