Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Staging Oncologic PET/CT Imaging and Patient Outcome in a Public Healthcare Context: Overview and Follow Up of the First Two Years of the Pandemic

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Our aim was to identify if the COVID-19 pandemic delayed PET/CT staging among oncology patients. In this retrospective cohort of 1572 patients who underwent PET/CT before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not identify statistically significant differences in the timing of staging or overall survival between groups. We, therefore, surmise that COVID-19 and the public health response to it did not significantly impact the diagnoses and outcomes of oncologic patients using PET/CT at our institution. ABSTRACT: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis, staging and outcome of a selected population throughout the first two years of the pandemic, we evaluated oncology patients undergoing PET/CT at our institution. A retrospective population of lung cancer, melanoma, lymphoma and head and neck cancer patients staged using PET/CT during the first 6 months of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 were included for analysis. The year in which the PET was performed was our exposure variable, and our two main outcomes were stage at the time of the PET/CT and overall survival (OS). A total of 1572 PET/CTs were performed for staging purposes during the first 6 months of 2019, 2020 and 2021. The median age was 66 (IQR 16), and 915 (58%) were males. The most prevalent staged cancer was lung cancer (643, 41%). The univariate analysis of staging at PET/CT and OS by year of PET/CT were not significantly different. The multivariate Cox regression of non-COVID-19 significantly different variables at univariate analysis and the year of PET/CT determined that lung cancer (HR 1.76 CI95 1.23–2.53, p < 0.05), stage III (HR 3.63 CI95 2.21–5.98, p < 0.05), stage IV (HR 11.06 CI95 7.04–17.36, p < 0.05) and age at diagnosis (HR 1.04 CI95 1.02–1.05, p < 0.05) had increased risks of death. We did not find significantly higher stages or reduced OS when assessing the year PET/CT was performed. Furthermore, OS was not significantly modified by the year patients were staged, even when controlled for non-COVID-19 significant variables (age, type of cancer, stage and gender).