American Society of Clinical Oncology Road to Recovery Report: Learning From the COVID-19 Experience to Improve Clinical Research and Cancer Care

Abstract

This report presents the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO’s) evaluation of the adaptations in care delivery, research operations, and regulatory oversight made in response to the coronavirus pandemic and presents recommendations for moving forward as the pandemic recedes. ASCO organized its recommendations for clinical research around five goals to ensure lessons learned from the COVID-19 experience are used to craft a more equitable, accessible, and efficient clinical research system that protects patient safety, ensures scientific integrity, and maintains data quality. The specific goals are: (1) ensure that clinical research is accessible, affordable, and equitable; (2) design more pragmatic and efficient clinical trials; (3) minimize administrative and regulatory burdens on research sites; (4) recruit, retain, and support a well-trained clinical research workforce; and (5) promote appropriate oversight and review of clinical trial conduct and results. Similarly, ASCO also organized its recommendations regarding cancer care delivery around five goals: (1) promote and protect equitable access to high-quality cancer care; (2) support safe delivery of high-quality cancer care; (3) advance policies to ensure oncology providers have sufficient resources to provide high-quality patient care; (4) recognize and address threats to clinician, provider, and patient well-being; and (5) improve patient access to high-quality cancer care via telemedicine. ASCO will work at all levels to advance the recommendations made in this report.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the care of cancer patients in Spain

“…The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently published recommendations for improving cancer research and care during the COVID-19 pandemic. 32 Among specific goals, ASCO included the need to ‘recognize and address threats to clinician, provider, and patient well-being; and improve patient access to high-quality cancer care via telemedicine’. These recommendations are in agreement with the results identified in our study.…”

“…These recommendations are in agreement with the results identified in our study. 32 Without doubt, the impact of COVID-19 on public healthcare systems in relation to cancer is global, and this concern extends to other sectors like the economy. This in turn may impact other issues associated with cancer, such as research, which in Spain is funded less than in some neighboring countries.…”

Professional practice changes in radiotherapy physics during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This task should include all stakeholders and further qualitative assessment via focus groups and/or new surveys to capture the evolution of clinical practice and COVID-19’s long-lasting effects. As previous reports considered the lessons learned from the oncologists [24] or RTTs [18] perspective, we hope that this report can constitute a basis to start this multi-disciplinary assessment from the medical physics perspective.…”

“…planning and patient-specific QA (PSQA), easily overlooked when establishing guidelines limiting patient contact. Whereas new publications are exploring the aftermath and lessons learned for future clinical practice [18] , [21] , [22] , [23] with potentially more patient-centric research and streamlined administrative and regulatory procedures [24] , the impact for MPs is unclear.…”

Imaging diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma (the forgotten disease) during times of COVID-19 pandemic: Current and future perspectives

“…When an individual who satisfies the eligibility criteria for surgical treatment of clinical stage I NSCLC, surgery may be deferred based on the consensus statement consistent with CDC guidance after taking into consideration the size, growth rate and 18F-FDG PET avidity of the malignant lesion[ 55 ]. Nevertheless, the clinical scenario needs to be discussed at a multidisciplinary tumour board meeting for delaying treatment in an indolent/early-stage bronchogenic carcinoma during times of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”