engleski

Cancer and coronavirus disease 2019; how do we manage cancer optimally through a public health crisis?

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has thus far infected nearly one million people worldwide, with over 40, 000 deaths. The consequences of the lockdown measures and displacement of cancer awareness in the general population, as well as rapid and profound re-educations in many aspects of cancer care, could have significant impact on cancer outcomes. Many oncologists are also now in doubt as to how to optimally manage their patients with metastatic and adjuvant cancer. They question what dose density and intensity they should use, potentially resulting in undertreatment bias. We fear that by emphasising the increased risk of death from COVID-19 in oncology patients, the optimal management of these patients will be compromised. Patients in follow-up are now on the margins of focus, both from an oncologist and a patient perspective, raising the prospect of suboptimal treatment and undetected disease recurrence. The modelling on which public health measures are being taken, as well as the sociopolitical and media narrative is entirely focused on COVID-19 mortality and morbidity, with no consideration for the impact of control measures on increasing morbidity and mortality in cancer, or indeed any other health condition. The COVID-19 pandemic needs to be managed but not at the expense of significant lost lives and suffering in patients with cancer.

Cancer ; COVID-19 ; public health crisis

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