Diagnosis and Management of Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought life to a standstill globally. Intermittent quarantines were applied to control the pandemic and reduce contamination. During the pandemic, pa-tients with hematological malignancies were among the most vulnerable population. Our aim was to com-pare in terms of demographic data, disease-related factors, symptom-to-diagnosis interval, diagnosis-to -treatment interval , and interim and end-of-treatment response in classical Hodgkin lymphoma patients diagnosed during the pandemic and in the pre-pandemic periods. A total of 90 patients were included, of which 65 and 25 were diagnosed in the 2 years before the pandemic and the 12-month period during the pandemic, respectively. Demographic features were comparable in both groups. Although the percentage of patients with advanced-stage disease was higher during the pandemic (64% vs 53.8%), this difference did not reach statistical significance ( P = 0.384). The median symptom-to-diagnosis interval was significantly longer during the pandemic than was observed within the pre-pandemic era (16 weeks vs 8 weeks, P = 0.042). The median diagnosis-to-treatment intervals was similar in both groups (13 days vs 15 days, P = 0.253). In the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, 85.2% and 72.7% of the patients had complete response at end-of-treatment evaluation, respectively ( P = 0.208). We found that symptom-to-diagnosis interval was significantly prolonged during the pandemic. Higher percentage of patients with advanced-stage disease during the pandemic might also be due to this delay, nevertheless, this difference did not reach to a sig-nificant difference regarding treatment response in both groups.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.