Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 1;7(2):279-284.
doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.6093.

Perceived Care and Well-being of Patients With Cancer and Matched Norm Participants in the COVID-19 Crisis: Results of a Survey of Participants in the Dutch PROFILES Registry

Lonneke V van de Poll-Franse  1   2   3 , Belle H de Rooij  1   3 , Nicole J E Horevoorts  1   3 , Anne M May  4 , Geraldine R Vink  1   5 , Miriam Koopman  5 , Hanneke W M van Laarhoven  6 , Marc G Besselink  7 , Simone Oerlemans  1 , Olga Husson  1   8   9 , Sandra Beijer  1 , Nicole P M Ezendam  1   3 , Natasja J H Raijmakers  1   10 , Barbara M Wollersheim  2 , Meeke Hoedjes  3 , Sabine Siesling  1   11 , Mies C van Eenbergen  1 , Floortje Mols  1   3
Affiliations

Perceived Care and Well-being of Patients With Cancer and Matched Norm Participants in the COVID-19 Crisis: Results of a Survey of Participants in the Dutch PROFILES Registry

Lonneke V van de Poll-Franse et al. JAMA Oncol. .

Abstract

Importance: As the resolution of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis is unforeseeable, and/or a second wave of infections may arrive in the fall of 2020, it is important to evaluate patients' perspectives to learn from this.

Objective: To assess how Dutch patients with cancer perceive cancer treatment and follow-up care (including experiences with telephone and video consultations [TC/VC]) and patients' well-being in comparison with a norm population during the COVID-19 crisis.

Design, setting, and participants: Cross-sectional study of patients participating in the Dutch Patient Reported Outcomes Following Initial Treatment and Long-term Evaluation of Survivorship (PROFILES) registry and a norm population who completed a questionnaire from April to May 2020.

Main outcomes and measures: Logistic regression analysis assessed factors associated with changes in cancer care (treatment or follow-up appointment postponed/canceled or changed to TC/VC). Differences in quality of life, anxiety/depression, and loneliness between patients and age-matched and sex-matched norm participants were evaluated with regression models.

Results: The online questionnaire was completed by 4094 patients (48.6% response), of whom most were male (2493 [60.9%]) and had a mean (SD) age of 63.0 (11.1) years. Of these respondents, 886 (21.7%) patients received treatment; 2725 (55.6%) received follow-up care. Treatment or follow-up appointments were canceled for 390 (10.8%) patients, whereas 160 of 886 (18.1%) in treatment and 234 of 2725 (8.6%) in follow-up had it replaced by a TC/VC. Systemic therapy, active surveillance, or surgery were associated with cancellation of treatment or follow-up appointment. Younger age, female sex, comorbidities, metastasized cancer, being worried about getting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and receiving supportive care were associated with replacement of a consultation with a TC/VC. Patients and norm participants reported that the COVID-19 crisis made them contact their general practitioner (852 of 4068 [20.9%] and 218 of 979 [22.3%]) or medical specialist/nurse (585 of 4068 [14.4%] and 144 of 979 [14.7%]) less quickly when they had physical complaints or concerns. Most patients who had a TC/VC preferred a face-to-face consultation, but 151 of 394 (38.3%) were willing to use a TC/VC again. Patients with cancer were more worried about getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared with the 977 norm participants (917 of 4094 [22.4%] vs 175 of 977 [17.9%]). Quality of life, anxiety, and depression were comparable, but norm participants more often reported loneliness (114 of 977 [11.7%] vs 287 of 4094 [7.0%]) than patients with cancer (P = .009).

Conclusions and relevance: Among patients with cancer in the Netherlands, 1 in 3 reported changes in cancer care in the first weeks of the COVID-19 crisis. Long-term outcomes need to be monitored. The crisis may affect the mental well-being of the general population relatively more than that of patients with cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Vink reported receiving grants from Servier, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sirtex Medical, Personal Genome Diagnostics, Bayer, and Merck outside the submitted work. Dr Koopman reported receiving grants from KWF during the conduct of the study; grants from ZonMw, MLDS, Oncode Institute, Amgen, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck-Serono, Roche, Servier, Nordic Pharma, Sirtex Medical, and Sanofi-Aventis outside the submitted work. Dr van Laarhoven reported receiving grants from the Dutch Cancer Society and grants and nonfinancial support from the Dutch Cancer Registry during the conduct of the study; and grants from Phillips; grants, nonfinancial support, and personal fees from Bristol Myers Squibb, Lilly, Merck, Nordic Pharma, and Servier; grants and nonfinancial support from Bayer, Celgene, Janssen, and Roche; and personal fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.. Experiences With Telephone Consultation (TC) or Video Consultation (VC) Among Patients With Cancer Who Had Their Face-to-Face Appointment Changed Into a TC or VC (N = 394)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dinmohamed AG, Visser O, Verhoeven RHA, et al. Fewer cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 epidemic in the Netherlands. Lancet Oncol. 2020;21(6):750-751. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30265-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rosenbaum L The untold toll—the pandemic’s effects on patients without Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(24):2368-2371. doi: 10.1056/NEJMms2009984 - DOI - PubMed
    1. van de Haar J, Hoes LR, Coles CE, et al. Caring for patients with cancer in the COVID-19 era. Nat Med. 2020;26(5):665-671. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0874-8 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barsom EZ, Feenstra TM, Bemelman WA, Bonjer JH, Schijven MP. Coping with COVID-19: scaling up virtual care to standard practice. Nat Med. 2020;26(5):632-634. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0845-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Webster P Virtual health care in the era of COVID-19. Lancet. 2020;395(10231):1180-1181. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30818-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms