Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on liver cancer management (CERO-19)
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems and it may have heavily impacted patients with liver cancer (LC). This project has evaluated if the schedule of LC screening or procedures has been interrupted /delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An international survey evaluated the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on clinical practice and clinical trials from March 2020 to June 2020, as the first phase of a multicentre, international and observational project. The focus was on patients with hepatocellular carcinoma or intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, cared for around the world during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave. RESULTS: Ninety-one centres expressed interest to participate and 76 were included in the analysis, from Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Africa (73.7%, 17.1%, 5.3%, 2.6% and 1.3% per continent, respectively). Eighty-seven per cent of the centres modified their clinical practice: 40.8% the diagnostic procedures, 80.9% the screening program, 50% cancelled curative and/or palliative treatments for LC, and 44.0% cancelled the liver transplantation program. Forty-five out 69 (65.2%) centres in which clinical trials were running modified their treatments in that setting, but 58.1% were able to recruit new patients. The phone call service was modified in 51.4% of centres which had this service prior to COVID-19 pandemic (n=19/37). CONCLUSION: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on the routine care of patients with LC. Modifications in screening, diagnostic and treatment algorithms may have significantly impaired the outcome of patients. Ongoing data collection and future analyses will report the benefits and disadvantages of the strategies implemented, aiding future decision making.
Date Issued
2021-06-01
Date Acceptance
2021-02-09
Citation
JHEP Reports, 2021, 3 (3)
ISSN
2589-5559
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
JHEP Reports
Volume
3
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Copyright URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33644725
PII: S2589-5559(21)00036-7
Subjects
BCLC, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer
CERO-19, Liver Cancer Outcome in the COVID-19-pandemic Project
COVID-19
ENS-CCA, European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma
IQR, Interquartile range
LC, Liver Cancer
cholangiocarcinoma
clinical trials
liver cancer
management
nurses
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Netherlands
Article Number
ARTN 100260
Date Publish Online
2021-02-23