Radiotherapy activity in the COVID 19 pandemic: Brazil's operational national-level study

Purpose

During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with cancer are at increased risk of not having timely diagnosis and access to cancer treatment. The present study evaluated the COVID-19 pandemic impact on radiotherapy activity in Brazil.

Methods

A national-level study was performed to evaluate the RT utilization for prostate, breast, head & neck (HN), Gynecology (GYN), Gastrointestinal (GI), lung cancers, and bone/brain metastases. The data on the RT executed was extracted from the Brazilian Ministry of Health database. The NON-COVID period was considered the control group, and the comparison groups were COVID-2020 (without vaccine) and COVID-2021 (with vaccine).

Results

We collected the data of 238,355 procedures executed on three periods. Significant difference in the RT utilization between NON-COVID and COVID-2020 were observed for prostate cancer, bone and brain metastases (−12.3 %, p = 0.02, +24 %, p = 0.02 and +14 %, p = 0.04, respectively). Comparing 2 equivalents months from NON-COVID-2019 (ref), COVID-2020, and COVID-2021, a significant increase was identified for bone and brain metastases (2020 +21 %, and 2021 +32 %), and (2020 +20 %, and 2021 +14 %). A stable drop occurred for prostate cancer (2020 −11 % and 2021 −10 %), and a variation was observed for breast (2020 +8 %, and 2021 −1 %) and lung cancer (2020 +10 %, and 2021 −3 %). For other cancers, non-significant changes were observed when comparing 2020 and 2021.

Conclusion

The RT activity was heterogeneously affected with a substantial increase for bone and brain metastases and a meaningful decline for prostate cancer.

Policy summary

With a significant increase in the use of palliative radiotherapy for bone and brain metastases and a meaningful reduction in curative radiotherapy for prostate cancer, we hope these findings can help governments, RT services, medical communities, and other stakeholders develop strategies to mitigate the impact of the present and future pandemics. Finally, despite the changes imposed by the COVID pandemic, it is imperative to enhance screening, increase cancer diagnosis at an early stage, and improve access to all cancer treatments, including radiotherapy.