Impact of preoperative COVID infection on the outcomes of planned curative-intent cancer surgeries in the second wave of the pandemic from a tertiary care center in India.

Pandrowala, Saneya; Ramraj, Deepak; Shankar, Ravi; Chopra, Saumya; Das, Abhishek; Mishra, Aseem; Pandey, Durgatosh

BACKGROUND Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic was an unforeseen calamity. Sudden disruption of nonemergency services led to disruption of treatment across all specialties. Oncology revolves around the tenet of timely detection and treatment. Disruption of any sort will jeopardize cure rates. The time interval between coronavirus infection and cancer surgery is variable and needs to be tailored to avoid the progression of the disease. METHODS We analyzed the impact of preoperative coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection on the planned cancer surgery, delay, disease progression, and change of intent of treatment from April 1 to May 31, 2021 at a tertiary care center. All preoperative positive patients were retested after 2 weeks and were considered for surgery if the repeat test was negative and asymptomatic. FINDINGS Our study included 432 preoperative patients of which 91 (21%) were COVID-19 positive. Amongst this cohort, 76% were operated and the morbidity and mortality were comparable to the COVID-19 negative cohort. Around 10% of the COVID-19 positive were lost to follow up and 10% had disease progression and were deemed palliative INTERPRETATION: SARS-CoV-2 infection has adversely impacted cancer care and a 2-week waiting period postinfection seems to be a safe interval in asymptomatic individuals to consider radical cancer surgery.