TY - JOUR T1 - Increase in lung cancer emergency presentations during the COVID-19 pandemic JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.PA3848 VL - 58 IS - suppl 65 SP - PA3848 AU - Claire Vella AU - Asif Ashraf AU - Rajini Sudhir AU - Prajakta Pinglay AU - Indrajeet Das AU - Mohammed Fiyaz Chowdhry AU - Apostolos Nakas AU - Cathy Richards AU - Sridhar Thiagarajan AU - Rakesh Panchal AU - Samreen Ahmed AU - Sanjay Agrawal AU - Muhammad Tufail AU - Jonathan Bennett Y1 - 2021/09/05 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/PA3848.abstract N2 - Emergency presentation (EP) of lung cancer is associated with advanced stage, age and frailty and is a negative predictor of survival and high healthcare costs. There have been significant changes in primary and secondary care services during COVID-19 pandemic and the “stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS” message during the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted healthcare seeking behaviour. We aim to determine the pandemic's effect on emergency presentations of lung cancer.Method: Data was retrieved from our trust cancer database for six months before the first COVID-19 lockdown in England (23/09/19–22/03/20) and six months after (23/03/20–22/09/20). EP of lung cancer was defined as new diagnosis of new lung cancer after emergency department or acute medical unit attendance.Data was analysed for patient characteristics and presentation route. The Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.Results: 291 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer in the 6 months prior to COVID-19 lockdown and 271 post-lockdown. Table 1 shows a significantly increased EP from 64 to 86 patients post-lockdown together with a significant increase in hospital versus primary care referrals to the lung cancer service. Pre-lockdownPost-lockdownNo of patients291271Mean age72.373.6M:F162:129150:121Advanced stage (IIIB-IVB)173184p=.033Emergency presentations6486p=.009Referral source: Hospital:primary care168:123182:89p=.021Conclusion: We demonstrate increased lung cancer EP after first COVID-19 lockdown. We believe this may be related to altered primary care service, patients not wanting to access healthcare ‘unnecessarily’ and thus not presenting until symptoms trigger emergency admission.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, PA3848.This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only). ER -