More patients with estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant endocrine therapy due to COVID-19<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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MONDAY, May 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) — More patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative breast cancer have been treated with neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NET) due to COVID-19, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, held virtually from April 29 to May 2.<\/p>\n
Lee G. Wilke, M.D., from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, and colleagues report on the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer using data for a COVID-19-specific registry, developed within the American Society of Breast Surgeons Mastery program. A total of 172 surgeons entered data on 2,476 unique COVID-19 registry and 2,303 Mastery registry patients between March 1 and Oct. 28, 2020.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that for patients with ER-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative disease, NET was used as a “usual” approach in 6.5 percent of patients in the COVID-19 registry, which was comparable to the 7.8 percent in the Mastery. In an additional 36 percent of patients, NET was used due to COVID-19. Patients were more likely to receive NET due to COVID-19 with increasing age and if they lived in the North or Southeast in a multinomial regression with surgery first\/usual practice as the reference (odds ratios, 1.1, 2.2, and 1.6, respectively). Overall, 10.8 percent of patients had a change in surgical approach reported due to COVID-19, with the primary reasons being planned return for mastectomy or reconstruction (27 and 15 percent, respectively).<\/p>\n
“COVID-related breast cancer treatment changes may have provided the context for testing new protocols, with some likely to persist beyond the pandemic,” Wilke said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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