PO-1000 Any impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the features of the Head and Neck (HN) cancer patients?

Purpose or Objective It has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 has prompted the quality of cancer care, as it induced more cases of late diagnosis of many cancers, in particular HN cancer. As consequence, these delays in diagnosis and treatment initiation may impact the prognosis. Aim of this study is to analyse features of the pts treated for an HN cancer in 2020 during the COVID-19 in our RO department, and to compare these patients with those treated in 2019, in order to highlight differences in staging and prognosis. Materials and Methods We analysed the electronic charts of patients addressed for curative RT-CT to our Dpt for a HN cancer in 2019 and in 2020. We performed a descriptive analysis for demographics and staging and we compared pts using a two-tailed Fisher's exact test. The chi-square test was used to compare the distribution of the clinical features of the patients. A p-value of >0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results A total of 48 pts were addressed to our Department, 21 in 2019 and 27 in 2020. Median age was 63.6 years (38 - 88) in 2019 and 60.3 (30-78) years in 2020 (p-value = NS) Table 1 summarized data of the pts. Patients features 2019 2020 p-value (Chi square test) Male/Female ratio 19/2 22/5 NS P16 status (positive/negative/NA) 7/3/11 6/10/11 NS T stage distribution (T1/T2/T3/T4) 4/6/4/7 3/4/5/15 NS N stage distribution (N0/N1/N2/N3) 9/4/6/2 7/5/12/2 NS TNM stage (I/II/III/IV) 3/7/3/8 3/2/6/16 NS We found significantly more pts with advanced diseases (stage III-IV) in 2020 when compared to 2019 (22 vs 11), in particular because of a higher number of T4 tumors (15 vs 7) and N2 tumors (12 vs 6) in patients treated in 2020. The small samples of our populationn could explain the lack of significativity. Fig 1 shows the 2X2 contingency table for the Ficher's exact test. $Φg Conclusion In our analysis, pts addressed to our Dpt for a HN cancer in 2020 presented more advanced stages when compared to 2019. The follow-up of pts was too short to present data on LC and OS in this abstract, but clinical data will be presented during the congress.