ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S2817

Interdisciplinary - Health economics & health services research

ESTRO 2024

1609

Digital Poster

A review assessing the impact of COVID-19 on radiotherapy activity in Scotland, 2 years post-COVID

Laura Grocutt 1,2 , Thomas Rowe 1 , Donna Caldwell 3 , Alasdair Rutherford 1 , Chloe Wilkinson 3 , Sean M O'Cathail 4

1 The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Radiotherapy Physics, Glasgow, United Kingdom. 2 University of Glasgow, CRUK RadNet Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom. 3 The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, NRS CRN W, Glasgow, United Kingdom. 4 University of Glasgow, School of Cancer Sciences, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Purpose/Objective:

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHS was redeployed and restructured to cope with the increased demand on healthcare services. There was significant concern that cancer patients were at increased risk of serious COVID-19-related complications due to immunosuppression and co-morbidities [1]. Professional bodies within the UK issued revised guidance for cancer care [2, 3]. Cancer screenings were initially suspended, routine diagnostic investigations were deferred, elective surgeries were postponed and alternative dose and fractionation regimes were recommended. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant contingency plans had on cancer radiotherapy services is largely unknown. Now that the world has returned to normal, there are concerns that the pandemic has had a negative effect on cancer care. However, there is little direct evidence to quantify this effect. This study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiotherapy services in Glasgow.

Material/Methods:

A detailed cross-sectional dataset of radiotherapy activity at our centre was collected from 01/04/2019-31/03/2023, which cover the year pre-COVID and the three years post-COVID. Anonymised data was extracted from the electronic radiotherapy health record on International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) code, age, gender, radiotherapy dose/fractionation, start and end dates and treatment intent. Differences in mean weekly radiotherapy courses, dose and fractionation patterns and treatment intent were compared across all four years, and split into specific treatment sites to assess if any particular sites have been impacted by COVID-19 more than others. Quantitative data were collected for all treatment sites.

Results:

A total of 28,852 radiotherapy courses were analysed over the course of the four years. The results showed that the total number of radiotherapy courses decreased from 6840 in Year 1 to 5995 in Year 2, the first year of COVID-19. When compared to Year 1 and Year 2, Year 3 saw an increase of 15% and 32%, respectively, and Year 4 saw an increase of 19% and 35%, respectively. The results are highlighted in Figure 1.