Results
A total of 278 patients were discussed at MTB meetings in the
pre-pandemic period versus 340 patients during the pandemic, an increase
of 22%. No difference was found between the percentage of male
patients, mean patient age, place of residence (Wielkopolska province or
elsewhere) (Table 1.)
Similarly, no differences were observed in the percentage of patients
receiving radiological diagnosis at the GPCC (49% vs. 50%). However,
the proportion of patients whose histopathologic evaluation of the
biopsied tumour was performed at the centre increased from 48.6% in the
pre-Covid period to 57.4% (p=0.029) (Table 1).
The mean time from first visit to the MTB meeting differed
non-significantly from the pre-pandemic to the pandemic period (27.9 vs
33.5 days, respectively). The mean time from presentation at the MTB to
treatment initiation increased significantly from 17.1 to 21.7 days
(p=0.006). Similarly, the mean time from first visit to treatment start
also increased significantly (44.7 vs. 54.4 days; p=0.004) (Table 1).
The percentage of oral cancer patients decreased significantly from
45.3% to 32.1% (p=0.01; Benjamini-Hochberg correction: p=0.059) while
the proportion of nasopharyngeal cancer patients rose from 0.4% to
3.2% (p=0.01; Benjamini-Hochberg correction p=0.059). There were no
significant differences between the two periods in the percentage of
locally (stage T3-T4), regionally (N+) advanced cases and in terms of
disease stage (III-IV) (Table 2.)
No significant differences were detected in the percentage of patients
undergoing surgery (71% vs. 75.4%) except for patients diagnosed with
early-stage oropharyngeal cancer, the percentage of patients who
underwent primary surgery increased significantly from 47.3% to 86.6%
(p=0.001) (Table 3).
The percentage of patients who received palliative radiotherapy
increased significantly, from 20.5% to 32.9% (p=0.001). In addition,
the proportion of patients who received best supportive care also
increased significantly, from 1.8% to 6.2% (p=0.007).