Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management and End-of-life Care of Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer

Objective The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has altered the delivery of medical care. The present study evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on the outcomes of unresectable pancreatic cancer (PC) patients who received end-of-life care. Methods We retrospectively compared the management of PC patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (from April 2020 to March 2021) to the preceding year, which was unaffected by the pandemic (from April 2019 to March 2020), based on a prospectively maintained institutional database. Results A total of 178 patients were included in the COVID-19-exposed group and 201 patients were included in the COVID-19-unexposed group. The median overall survival was similar between the groups (exposed vs. unexposed: 12.6 vs. 11.9 months, p = 0.174). Treatment regimens and relative dose intensities and the progression-free survival of GnP (gemcitabine in combination with nab-paclitaxel) and mFOLFIRINOX as first- and second-line chemotherapy did not differ significantly between the two groups. Only 9.0% of patients died at home in the COVID-19-unexposed group, compared to 32.0% in the COVID-19-exposed group (p