Introduction: During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, breast cancer surgery advisory body guidance was issued in the UK prioritising ER negative or node positive patients for surgery. This necessitated the use of neoadjuvant endocrine treatment (NET) in deferring surgery for node negative, hormone receptor positive patients. Previous studies looking at the risk of conversion to node positive status during the surgical deferment time are few.
Method: A prospective analysis of 42 patients with node negative, ER positive invasive breast cancer during the first wave (February - May 2020) of the global COVID-19 pandemic were studied
Patient data from the Multi-Disciplinary Meeting (MDM) cancer registry were gathered in an observational study, comparing demographics and subsequent node positivity rates in the study period to a control group (CG) of patients in the preceding February – May 2019 period when the pandemic was unknown in the UK.
Results: The mean follow-up period for the NET group was 8.4 months, until they proceeded on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis to surgery with lockdown easing from September 2020 onwards. Demographics between the NET and CG were comparable.
3/42 patients (7%) in the NET group were found to be sentinel node positive at surgery, compared to 5/58 (8.6%) in CG. This was not statistically significant on Chi-Squared test (P>0.05)
Conclusion: Within the short (pandemic imposed) study period, NET appears to be a safe oncological strategy for deferring surgery for the selected MDM discussed cases. There were no COVID-19 infections encountered following surgery in the NET group.
Abstracts for BASO Trainees Oral Prize Presentation at the BASO Annual Scientific (virtual) Meeting: 21st November 2021
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