Stage Migration in Urological Cancers in Germany during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Fact or Fiction?

IF 1.5 4区医学 Q3 UROLOGY & NEPHROLOGY

Urologia Internationalis Pub Date : 2025-02-25 DOI:10.1159/000544745

Henning Bahlburg, Patricia Rausch, Matteo Silberg, Karl Heinrich Tully, Sebastian Berg, Joachim Noldus, Marius Cristian Butea-Bocu, Burkhard Beyer, Guido Müller

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted many aspects of health care, including cancer treatment. This study aims to assess the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tumor stage migration in the three most common urological malignancies.

Methods: Patient and tumor characteristics of patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation (IR) in one dedicated IR center in 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2021 (mid-pandemic) were retrospectively evaluated. The study focused on patients after radical prostatectomy (RP) for prostate cancer (PCa), radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer (BCa), or (partial) nephrectomy for kidney cancer (KC).

Results: Overall, 9,039 patients (6,898 (76.3%) after RP, 1,427 (15.8%) after RC, 714 (7.9%) after (partial) nephrectomy) were enrolled. A significant decrease of PCa patients suffering from Gleason sum score ≥8 (17.6% vs. 20.5%, p = 0.005) and lymph node metastases (10.9% vs. 13.0%; p = 0.012) was observed. In BCa and KC patients, tumor stage distribution and abundance of lymph node metastases remained stable, while significantly more BCa patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (10.4% vs. 20.2%, p = 0.001). Overall, a significant increase in robot-assisted surgery across all investigated malignancies was detected.

Conclusions: No stage migration could be detected across the three most common urological malignancies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therapeutic standards remained high, while oncological outcomes remained relatively unchanged.

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来源期刊

Urologia Internationalis 医学-泌尿学与肾脏学

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

6.20%

发文量

审稿时长

3-8 weeks

期刊介绍： Concise but fully substantiated international reports of clinically oriented research into science and current management of urogenital disorders form the nucleus of original as well as basic research papers. These are supplemented by up-to-date reviews by international experts on the state-of-the-art of key topics of clinical urological practice. Essential topics receiving regular coverage include the introduction of new techniques and instrumentation as well as the evaluation of new functional tests and diagnostic methods. Special attention is given to advances in surgical techniques and clinical oncology. The regular publication of selected case reports represents the great variation in urological disease and illustrates treatment solutions in singular cases.