ArticleCancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology2023
Impact on the Volume of Pathology Reports Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in SEER Cancer Registries.
Article in Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changes in cancer-related mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) in Nevada.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence and mortality of primary spinal tumors in the United States: A SEER analysis.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on 2021 cancer incidence rates and potential rebound from 2020 decline.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2025Article
- Lung cancer incidence, 2019-2020, United States: The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.Annals of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Cancer and COVID-19: US cancer incidence rates during the first year of the pandemic.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2024Article
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10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionHealth care procedures including cancer screening and diagnosis were interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of this impact on cancer care in the United States is not fully understood. We investigated pathology report volume as a reflection of trends in oncology services pre-pandemic and during the pandemic.
methodsElectronic pathology reports were obtained from 11 U.S. central cancer registries from NCI's SEER Program. The reports were sorted by cancer site and document type using a validated algorithm. Joinpoint regression was used to model temporal trends from January 2018 to February 2020, project expected counts from March 2020 to February 2021 and calculate observed-to-expected ratios. Results were stratified by sex, age, cancer site, and report type.
resultsDuring the first 3 months of the pandemic, pathology report volume decreased by 25.5% and 17.4% for biopsy and surgery reports, respectively. The 12-month O/E ratio (March 2020-February 2021) was lowest for women (O/E 0.90) and patients 65 years and older (O/E 0.91) and lower for cancers with screening (melanoma skin, O/E 0.86; breast, O/E 0.88; lung O/E 0.89, prostate, O/E 0.90; colorectal, O/E 0.91) when compared with all other cancers combined.
conclusionsThese findings indicate a decrease in cancer diagnosis, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This decrease in the number of pathology reports may result in a stage shift causing a subsequent longer-term impact on survival patterns. IMPACT: Investigation on the longer-term impact of the pandemic on pathology services is vital to understand if cancer care delivery levels continue to be affected.
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