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. 2022 Oct;5(10):e1571.
doi: 10.1002/cnr2.1571. Epub 2021 Oct 12.

Oncological patients' reactions to COVID-19 pandemic: A single institution prospective study

Concetta Elisa Onesti  1   2 , Hélène Schroeder  1 , Andrée Rorive  1 , Brieuc Sautois  1 , Marie Lecocq  1 , Marie Goffin  1 , Elodie Gonne  1 , Astrid Collinge  1 , Laurence Nicolaers  1 , Odile Wéra  1 , Amandine Catot  1 , Catherine Loly  3 , Astrid Paulus  4 , Anne Sibille  4 , Laurence Lousberg  1 , Florence Troisfontaine  1 , Joëlle Collignon  1 , Christine Gennigens  1 , Pierre Frères  1 , Marc Polus  3 , Bernard Duysinx  4 , Frédérique Vaillant  4 , Nathalie Marchal  1 , Aurélie Poncin  1 , Guy Jerusalem  1   5
Affiliations

Oncological patients' reactions to COVID-19 pandemic: A single institution prospective study

Concetta Elisa Onesti et al. Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Background: The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid reorganization in all human and hospital activities, with impact on cancer patients.

Aim: An analysis of cancer patients fears, and awareness of COVID-19 has been done in this study.

Methods and results: We analyzed cancer patients' reactions to the pandemic and their perception of oncological care reorganization, through a 12-item survey, proposed at the peak of pandemic and 3 months later. Overall, 237 patients were included in the study. During the peak of pandemic 34.6% of patients were more worried about COVID-19 than cancer versus 26.4% in the post-acute phase (p = .013). Although 49.8% of patients in the acute phase and 42.3% in the post-acute phase considered their risk of death if infected ≥50%, and more than 70% of patients thought to be at higher risk of complications, the majority of them did not consider the possibility to stop or delay their treatment. Patients were more interested in following news about COVID-19 than cancer and they complied with all preventive measures in more than 90% of the cases.

Conclusions: Although cancer patients worried about COVID-19 and evaluated the risk of complication or death due to COVID-19 as extremely high, they were still asking for the best oncological treatment.

Keywords: COVID-19 and cancer; SARS-CoV2; patients' awareness; patients' feelings.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. B.S. reports consulting or Advisory role for Clovis Oncology, Astellas, Janssen, and Sanofi and received financial support for travel and/or accommodation from Janssen, outside the submitted work. Dr. A.S. reports Advisory board role for MSD, AstraZeneca, BMS, Boehringer‐Ingelheim, Roche, Takeda, and Pfizer, outside the submitted work. Dr. G.J. reports grants, personal fees, and nonfinancial support from Novartis, Roche, Pfizer; personal fees and nonfinancial support from Lilly, Amgen, BMS, and Astra‐Zeneca; personal fees from Daiichi Sankyo and Abbvie; nonfinancial support from Medimmune and MerckKGaA, outside the submitted work. The other authors have nothing to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Worries about COVID‐19 and cancer. Bar graphs showing the proportion of patients more worried about COVID‐19 or cancer during the acute phase (blue) and during the post‐acute phase (red)
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Patients' perception about oncological treatment. Bar graphs representing the patients' perception about the possibility to stop treatment due to the infectious risk (A), the importance to receive the best treatment (B), and the possibility to permanently discontinue the treatment if infected by Sars‐Cov‐2 (C)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Risk of death and complications by COVID‐19. Bar graphs representing patients' perception of the risk of death (A) and complications (B) if infected by Sars‐Cov‐2 during the acute phase (blue) and the post‐acute phase (red)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Interest in following the news about COVID‐19 and cancer. Bar graphs representing the proportion of patients following the news about COVID‐19 and cancer
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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