The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Genitourinary Cancers Stage and Grade

Diana Taheri; Fatemeh Jahanshahi; Alireza Khajavi; Fatemeh Kafi; Alireza Pouramini; Reza M Farsani; Yasamin Alizadeh; Maryam Akbarzadeh; Leonardo O Reis; Fatemeh Khatami; Seyed Mohammad Kazem Aghamir

doi:10.1016/j.clgc.2022.11.016

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Genitourinary Cancers Stage and Grade

Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2023 Feb;21(1):84-90. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2022.11.016. Epub 2022 Nov 24.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Isfahan Kidney Disease Research Center, Department of Pathology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran; Urology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Urology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Research Committee Member, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Student Research Committee, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Urology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Department of Pathology, Moheb-Mehr Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
⁶ Department of Urology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁷ UroScience and Department of Surgery (Urology), School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Unicamp, and Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, PUC-Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁸ Urology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: mkaghamir@tums.ac.ir.

Abstract

Introduction: Our study aims to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of uro-oncological surgeries (cystectomy, nephrectomy, prostatectomy, orchiectomy, and transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT)) and pathological staging and grading.

Materials and methods: The present study is a retrospective study on patients with genitourinary cancers treated from 2018 to 2021 in a referral tertiary center. The data were obtained from the hospital records with lengths of 22 and 23 months, labeled hereafter as non-COVID and COVID pandemic, respectively (2018/3/21-2020/1/20 and 2020/1/21-2021/12/21). The total number of registered patients, gender, age, stage, and grade were compared in the targeted periods. Moreover, all the pathologic slides were reviewed by an expert uropathologist before enrolling in the study. The continuous and discrete variables are reported as mean (standard deviation (SD)) and number (percent) and the χ² test for the comparison of the discrete variables' distribution.

Results: In this study total number of 2077 patients were enrolled. The number of procedures performed decreased during the Covid pandemic. The tumors' distribution stage and grade and patients' baseline characteristics were not significantly different in non-COVID and COVID pandemic periods for Radical Nephrectomy, Radical Cystectomy, Radical Prostatectomy, and orchiectomy. For TURBT only, the tumor stage was significantly different (P-value<.001) from the higher stages in the COVID pandemic period.

Conclusion: Among urinary tract cancers, staging of bladder cancer and TURBT are mainly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with higher stages compared to the non-COVID period. We evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of uro-oncological surgeries based on pathological staging and grading. Total number of 2077 patients were enrolled. Among urinary tract cancers, staging of bladder cancer and TURBT are mainly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with higher stages compared to the non-COVID period.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Cystectomy; Nephrectomy; Orchiectomy; Prostatectomy; TURBT.

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cystectomy / methods
Humans
Male
Pandemics
Retrospective Studies
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* / epidemiology
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* / pathology
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* / surgery
Urologic Neoplasms* / surgery