Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulting in COVID-19, is posing an insurmountable challenge to healthcare systems globally. Cancer therapy is complex, regimented, and outcomes are focused on timing. COVID-19 has thrown a gauntlet to an already strained system for cancer treatment. Given the extrinsic factors (e.g. resource constraints and high morbidity/mortality) of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intrinsic factors of patients with cancer (e.g. high-risk population, lower immune system, and many at advanced stage of disease), practitioners face great responsibilities in ensuring timely, appropriate, compassionate, and justified cancer care, while protecting themselves from becoming infected with COVID-19 [1]. The reported prevalence of cancer among patients with COVID-19 i.e. around 1% seems to be higher than its prevalence in the overall population [2]. Early data from two small, heterogeneous populations [3] showed that 39-54% of patients with cancer were reported to have a severe event (admission to intensive care unit, or death) when infected with COVID-19 [2,4]. Receiving antitumor chemo-or immuno-therapy or surgery within 2-4 weeks of developing symptoms of COVID-19 predicted worse outcomes [2,4]. The challenges imposed by COVID-19 impact every aspect of the existing paradigm of cancer care, starting with diagnosis all the way to end-of-life care for cancer patients, which raises concerns about patients receiving suboptimal care.

References

1. U Masumi., et al. “Managing cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic: agility and collaboration toward a common goal”. Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 4 (2020).
2. W Liang., et al. “Cancer patients in SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide analysis in China”. Lancet Oncology 21 (2020): 335-337.
3. Y Xia., et al. “Risk of COVID-19 for patients with cancer”. Lancet Oncology4 (2020): e180.
4. L Zhang., et al. “Clinical characteristics of COVID-19-infected cancer patients: a retrospective case study in three hospitals within Wuhan, China”. Annuals of Oncology7 (2020): 894-901.

Citation

Citation: Md Abu Bashar and Nazia Begam. “Unprecedented Challenges Need Unprecedented Solutions for Cancer Care" Acta Scientific Clinical Case Reports 2.1 (2021): 01.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Md Abu Bashar and Nazia Begam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.