Outcomes of Cancer Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preparedness to Practising Continuous Cancer Care

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on healthcare services. Deprioritisation of nonemergency clinical services and growing concerns of adverse outcomes of COVID-19 in cancer patients is having a deleterious impact across oncologic practice. We report cancer surgery outcomes taking into account the acuity of the COVID-19 situation. A prospectively maintained database of the Department of Surgical Oncology was analysed from 1st May to 30th June, 2020, to evaluate the perioperative outcomes, morbidity and mortality following major surgical procedures. A total of 359, preoperatively, tested negative for COVID-19 underwent surgery. Median age was 52 years with 26.7% (n = 96) above the age of 60 years. Sixty-one percent (n = 219) patients were American Society of Anaesthesiology grades II-III. As per surgical complexity grading, 36.8% (n = 132) cases were lower grades (I-III) and 63.2% (n = 227) were complex surgeries (IV-VI). 5.3% (n = 19) had ≥ grade III Clavien-Dindo complication, and the postoperative mortality rate was 0.27% (n = 1). Major complication rates in patients > 60 years were 9.3% in comparison to 4.1% in < 60 years (p = 0·63). The median hospital stay was 1-10 days across subspecialties. Postoperatively, repeat COVID 19 testing in 2 suspected patients were negative. Our study showed that after screening, triaging and prioritisation, asymptomatic cases may undergo cancer surgeries without increased morbidity during COVID-19 pandemic.