429P - Cancer and COVID-19 in India: Assessing the impact in a nationwide survey

Background

The impact of COVID-19 has been concerning in management of the non-COVID diseases, especially cancer. We conducted an online survey to study the impact COVID-19 had on cancer-related care.

Methods

The survey was conducted in collaboration with OncoAlert between March 2022 and June 2022 through google forms which were mainly circulated through the ONCOassist app and other social platforms including emails to various oncology-related specialties.

Results

The online questionnaire was completed by 155 respondents and the majority were males (71%) who were relatively young (85.1% were in the age group 25-45 years). The majority were radiation oncologists (52.3%) and Medical Oncologists (29%). About 3/4^th of the centers admitted admit COVID patients in their centers and 81.3% believed cancer care was hampered due to the pandemic. About 79.4% provided telemedicine facilities and 18.8% conveyed that more than 25% of cancer patients were managed by this facility. COVID testing was done before starting therapy with 65.4%, 54.9%, and 52.3% sharing the need for the test prior to surgery, chemotherapy, or the start of radiation therapy respectively. Only 11.1% felt the need to deviate from the standard of care more than 50% of the time. The majority (74.5%) felt there was a delay in diagnosis and 81.7% and 80.4% felt there was progression to advanced stages or patients were lost to follow-up respectively. About 56.9% felt that they provided substandard treatment to their patients. Education and training in oncology too took a hit during the pandemic as examinations for the specialties in oncology needed to be conducted on the online platform (46%). About 22.9%, 10.8%, and 14.2% felt that more than 50% of surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment needed to be canceled. Unfortunately, 21.8% reported having to make changes in the curative intent of treatment. The recruitment delays and halts (87.5%) were major factors that impacted the oncology-related research and 52.8% did not start new research. About 59.3% have used the Oncoassist mobile application for more than a year.

Conclusions

Decision-making in oncology has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth is a novel concept that is being encouraged and used by clinicians to improve patient care.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

B. Devnani: Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker, Invited for a lecture in Sabah Rectal cancer summit and recieved 300 dollars for the same: Sabah Rectal Cancer Society, Malaysia; Financial Interests, Personal, Officer, I am chairperson of committee for making Consensus document for management of Melanoma and CNS tumors and member of Survivorship committee: Indian Council of Medical Research; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role, Facebook editor of Oncoalert network: Oncoalert; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Member, Life time member: Association of Radiation Oncologists of India, Indian Society of Neuro-Oncology; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Member, Member in 2019-2020: ASTRO; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Member, Member of Society: Indian Society of Oncology. K.D. Bambury: Financial Interests, Institutional, Invited Speaker, I am a director and full-time employee of ONCOassist. ONCOassist receives sponsorship from various pharmaceutical companies.: ONCOassist; Financial Interests, Personal, Ownership Interest: ONCOassist. G. Morgan: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board, Advisory board: Pfizer, Roche; Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker, Invited lecturer: Novartis; Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker, invited speaker: Astra Zeneca; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Role, Advisory Board eESO: ESO; Non-Financial Interests, Personal, Leadership Role, Director of OncoAlert Network: OncoAlert. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.