COVID-19 Recommendations for Patients with Cancer: The post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

Despite the extent of the COVID-19 infection worldwide, the impact of the pandemic in our country remains low thanks to containment measures. On July 11, 2020, the spread of the virus in Morocco has caused more than 15,000 cases and 243 deaths. It is important to note that cancer patients are at high risk of developing COVID-19 disease. However, little changes have been made in our clinical practice in cancer management. Medical care aims are to ensure optimal treatment while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Management should be discussed in a multidisciplinary team meeting, and any decision made, particularly influenced by the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, should be discussed and shared with the patient. In this article, we summarize our practical recommendations and how we prioritize cancer patient care during the post-COVID-19 phase.

Radiotherapy based management during Covid-19 pandemic – A systematic review of presented consensus and guidelines

“…Based on the published references ( Table 1 , Table 2 ), some cases including high- or intermediate-grade cancer, frail patients who are not eligible for surgery, hormone-sensitive cancers (e.g., breast and prostate cases), malignancies in locally advanced stages (e.g., breast, lung, cervix locally advanced cancers) should treat as the standard of care. Emergency cases (known as the urgent category) such as superior vena cava syndrome (SVCO), uncontrolled pain or bleeding, occlusion, and spinal cord compression are recommended for radiotherapy continuation with high priority ( Ismaili, 2020b ; Cruz et al, 2020 ).…”

COVID-19 and Gynecological Cancers: A Summary of International Recommendations

“…Recognizing that the morbidity and mortality from postoperative COVID-19 pneumonia is significant, surgery should be delayed in COVID-19-positive patients until they are asymptomatic for more than 3 weeks; some teams recommend a negative control test by RT-PCR [1,5].…”

“…According to the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/ 2019-ncov), these persons are those aged > 65 or those with chronic lung disease, moderate/severe asthma, severe heart disease, immunosuppressive disease or therapy, cancer, etc. It is also desirable to limit the exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 patients [1,5].…”

“…Morocco and the rest of the world are experiencing a pandemic of a new coronavirus known as COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) [1]. On August 22, 2020, the spread of the virus in Morocco had caused more than 52,000 cases and 880 deaths.…”

“…Cancer patients are more susceptible to develop an infection than people without cancer because of their immunosuppression caused by the disease and treatments, such as chemotherapy and/or surgery. Therefore, these patients are at higher risk of infection with COVID-19 and a much higher risk of developing more serious forms [1].…”