Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer stage at diagnosis according to race

PURPOSE: To determine if the COVID‐19 pandemic has further exacerbated racial disparities in late‐stage presentation of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers. METHODS: We conducted a registry‐based retrospective study of patients with newly reported diagnoses of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers between March 2019–June 2019 (pre‐COVID‐19) and March 2020–June 2020 (early‐COVID‐19). We compared the volume of new diagnoses and stage at presentation according to race between both periods. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 3528 patients had newly diagnosed cancer; 3304 of which had known disease stages and were included in the formal analyses. 467 (14.1%) were Blacks, and 2743 were (83%) Whites. 1216 (36.8%) had breast, 415 (12.6%) had colorectal, 827 (25%) had lung, and 846 (25.6%) had prostate cancers, respectively. The pre‐COVID‐19 period included 2120 (64.2%), and the early‐COVID‐19 period included 1184 (35.8%), representing a proportional 44.2% decline in the volume of new cases of breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers, p < 0.0001. Pre‐COVID‐19, 16.8% were diagnosed with metastatic disease, versus 20.4% early‐COVID‐19, representing a proportional increase of 21.4% in the numbers of new cases with metastatic disease, p = 0.01. There was a non‐significant proportional decline of 1.9% in Black patients diagnosed with non‐metastatic breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers early‐COVID‐19 (p = 0.71) and a non‐significant proportional increase of 7% in Black patients diagnosed with metastatic disease (p = 0.71). Difference‐in‐difference analyses showed no statistically significant differences in metastatic presentation comparing Black to White patients. CONCLUSION: While we identified substantial reductions in the volume of new cancer diagnoses and increases in metastatic presentations due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, the impact was similar for White and Black patients.