PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mostafavi Zadeh, Seyed Mostafa
AU  - Tajik, Fatemeh
AU  - Gheytanchi, Elmira
AU  - Kiani, Jafar
AU  - Ghods, Roya
AU  - Madjd, Zahra
TI  - COVID-19 pandemic impact on screening and diagnosis of prostate cancer: a systematic review
AID  - 10.1136/spcare-2023-004310
DP  - 2024 Nov 01
TA  - BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
PG  - e1594--e1603
VI  - 14
IP  - e2
4099  - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/14/e2/e1594.short
4100  - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/14/e2/e1594.full
SO  - BMJ Support Palliat Care2024 Nov 01; 14
AB  - Introduction The healthcare level has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic compared with before the outbreak. This study aimed to review the impact of COVID-19 on the screening and diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa).Method The current study was designed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020. The keywords used to perform the search strategy were COVID-19 and prostate neoplasms. The four primary electronic databases comprising PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus and Embase were searched until 1 September 2022. After screening and selecting studies through the EndNote software, data were extracted from each included study by two independent authors. All studies were evaluated according to Newcastle–Ottawa Scale quality assessment tool.Results As a result, 40 studies were included, categorised into two subjects. The majority of studies indicated a significant decrease in screening prostate-specific antibody tests during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic period, leading to delays in cancer diagnosis. The decrease in the number of diagnosed cases with low/intermediate stages to some extent was more than those with advanced stages. The PCa screening and diagnosis reduction ranged from nearly 0% to 78% and from 4.1% to 71.7%, respectively.Conclusion Our findings showed that during the COVID-19 lockdown, delays in PCa screening tests and diagnoses led to the negative health effects on patients with PCa. Thus, it is highly recommended performing regular cancer screening to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.PROSPERO registration number CRD42021291656.Data are available in a public, open access repository.