Cancer care and well‐being in adolescents and young adults during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A UK sarcoma perspective

• Published in: Cancer Vol. 126; no. 24; pp. 5359 - 5360
• Main Authors: Lidington, Emma K., Smrke, Alannah, Ingley, Katrina M., Strauss, Sandra J., Husson, Olga, Younger, Eugenie
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 15.12.2020; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Coronaviruses; Correspondence; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - virology; Delivery of Health Care - organization & administration; Female; Humans; Male; Oncology; Pandemics; Patient Care - standards; Sarcoma; Sarcoma - diagnosis; Sarcoma - therapy; SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification; United Kingdom - epidemiology; Young Adult; Young adults; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0008-543X; 1097-0142
• DOI: 10.1002/cncr.33215

In the first month of lockdown, we surveyed 350 patients with sarcoma from two London institutions, including 60 AYAs aged 16 to 39 years (52% male).2 Consistent with the heightened anxiety reported by Kosir et al, AYAs were significantly more likely than adults to report that the pandemic had an impact on their emotional well‐being (60% vs 38%; P = .002), and they had significantly lower emotional functioning (measured using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire [EORTC‐QLQ‐C30]) to a clinically relevant level (mean score, 63.1 vs 74.6; P = .001). A repeated cross‐sectional study comparing clinical and community cohorts of young people aged 14 to 28 years found that clinical cohorts had slightly higher mental health symptoms but community cohorts experienced greater deterioration during the pandemic.6 Similarly, a Dutch study of over 4,000 cancer survivors and matched normative participants found slightly higher levels of depression and loneliness in the general population.7 These studies suggest that levels of distress may be similar, or even higher, in healthy populations. Additional limitations include the lack of information on cancer type and stage, which lead to differing levels of anxiety and health‐related quality of life in AYAs.9 There was also a high proportion of AYAs (37%) who reported pre‐existing mental health conditions and may be particularly sensitive to disruption caused by the pandemic.