Breast cancer and COVID - 19: The effect of fear on patients{'} decision-making process

background/aim: coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak is currently having a huge impact on medical resource allocation. breast cancer (BC) patients are concerned both with BC treatment and COVID-19. this study aimed to estimate the impact of anxiety among patients, caused by the spreading of COVID-19. patients and methods: between the 16th of january and the 20th of march 2020, we retrospectively enrolled 160 patients. eighty-two patients with a suspected breast lesion (SBL) were divided into two groups: PRE-COVID-19-SBL and POST-COVID-19-SBL. seventy-eight BC patients were divided into PRE-COVID-19-BC and POST-COVID-19-BC. patient characteristics including age, marital status, SBL/BC diameter, personal and family history of BC, clinical stage and molecular subtype were recorded. procedure refusal (PR) and surgical refusal (SR) were also recorded with their reason. results: BC and SBL analysis showed no difference in pre-treatment characteristics (p>0.05). Both POSTCOVID- 19-SBL and POST-COVID-19-BC groups showed higher rates of PR and SR (p=0.0208, p=0.0065 respectively). Infection risk represented primary reason for refusal among POST-COVID-19 patients. conclusion: COVID-19-related anxiety could affect patients' decisionmaking process.