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. 2020 Jun;34(3 Suppl):1651-1659.
doi: 10.21873/invivo.11957.

Breast Cancer and COVID-19: The Effect of Fear on Patients' Decision-making Process

Gianluca Vanni  1 , Marco Materazzo  2 , Marco Pellicciaro  1 , Sara Ingallinella  1 , Maurizio Rho  1 , Francesca Santori  1 , Maria Cotesta  1 , Jonathan Caspi  1 , Anna Makarova  3 , Chiara Adriana Pistolese  4 , Oreste Claudio Buonomo  1
Affiliations

Breast Cancer and COVID-19: The Effect of Fear on Patients' Decision-making Process

Gianluca Vanni et al. In Vivo. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Background/aim: Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak is currently having a huge impact on medical resource allocation. Breast Cancer (BC) patients are concerned both with BC treatment and COVID-19. This study aimed to estimate the impact of anxiety among patients, caused by the spreading of COVID-19.

Patients and methods: Between the 16th of January and the 20th of March 2020, we retrospectively enrolled 160 patients. Eighty-two patients with a suspected breast lesion (SBL) were divided into two groups: PRE-COVID-19-SBL and POST-COVID-19-SBL. Seventy-eight BC patients were divided into PRE-COVID-19-BC and POST-COVID-19-BC. Patient characteristics including age, marital status, SBL/BC diameter, personal and family history of BC, clinical stage and molecular subtype were recorded. Procedure Refusal (PR) and Surgical Refusal (SR) were also recorded with their reason.

Results: BC and SBL analysis showed no difference in pre-treatment characteristics (p>0.05). Both POST-COVID-19-SBL and POST-COVID-19-BC groups showed higher rates of PR and SR (p=0.0208, p=0.0065 respectively). Infection risk represented primary reason for refusal among POST-COVID-19 patients.

Conclusion: COVID-19-related anxiety could affect patients' decision-making process.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-SOV-2; anxiety; breast cancer; decision-making process; surgery; surgery refusal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The Authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this study.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. SBL study population.
Figure 2
Figure 2. BC study population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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