Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment patterns for US patients with metastatic solid cancer.

Parikh RB, Takvorian SU, Vader D, Wileyto EP, Clark AS, Lee DJ, Goyal G, Rocque GB, Dotan E, Geynisman DM, Phull P, Spiess PE, Kim RY, Davidoff AJ, Gross CP, Neparidze N, Miksad RA, Calip GS, Hearn CM, Ferrell W, Shulman LN, Mamtani R, Hubbard RA, PRACTICE Investigators. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment patterns for US patients with metastatic solid cancer. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences [Preprint]. 2021 Sep 23.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to delays in patients seeking care for life-threatening conditions; however, its impact on treatment patterns for patients with metastatic cancer is unknown. We assessed the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on time to treatment initiation (TTI) and treatment selection for patients newly diagnosed with metastatic solid cancer. Methods: We used an electronic health record-derived longitudinal database curated via technology-enabled abstraction to identify 14,136 US patients newly diagnosed with de novo or recurrent metastatic solid cancer between January 1 and July 31 in 2019 or 2020. Patients received care at 280 predominantly community-based oncology practices. Controlled interrupted time series analyses assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic period (April-July 2020) on TTI, defined as the number of days from metastatic diagnosis to receipt of first-line systemic therapy, and use of myelosuppressive therapy. Results: The adjusted probability of treatment within 30 days of diagnosis [95% confidence interval] was similar across periods: January-March 2019 41.7% [32.2%, 51.1%]; April-July 2019 42.6% [32.4%, 52.7%]; January-March 2020 44.5% [30.4%, 58.6%]; April-July 2020 46.8% [34.6%, 59.0%]; adjusted percentage-point difference-in-differences 1.4% [-2.7%, 5.5%]. Among 5,962 patients who received first-line systemic therapy, there was no association between the pandemic period and use of myelosuppressive therapy (adjusted percentage-point difference-in-differences 1.6% [-2.6%, 5.8%]). There was no meaningful effect modification by cancer type, race, or age. Conclusions: Despite known pandemic-related delays in surveillance and diagnosis, the COVID-19 pandemic did not impact time to treatment initiation or treatment selection for patients with metastatic solid cancers.