"The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in the number of people seeking health care services, including breast cancer screening, as many screening programs were temporarily suspended because of concerns about exposure to the virus and the burden on the health care system," the researchers wrote
Severe COVID-19 infections were tied to a higher likelihood of cancer TD, while TD was less likely among those with stable cancer at COVID-19 diagnosis than those with advancing cancer (aPR, 0.51), suggesting that patients already engaged in care were able to continue treatment.
They added that the higher TD rate among Asian cancer patients could have been due to language barriers that interfered with the ability to use telehealth services among older Asian patients and Asians' higher rate of hospitalization and COVID-19 death compared with White patients.
