• Serena Zuliani, Ilaria Zampiva, Daniela Tregnago, Miriam Casali, Alessandro Cavaliere, Arianna Fumagalli, Sara Merler, Silvia Teresa Riva, Alice Rossi, Francesca Zacchi, Elisa Zaninotto, Alessandra Auriemma, Michele Pavarana, Caterina Soldà, Lavinia Benini, Michele Borghesani, Alberto Caldart, Simona Casalino, Marina Gaule, Dzenete Kadrija, Marta Mongillo, Camilla Pesoni, Pamela Biondani, Sara Cingarlini, Elena Fiorio, Davide Melisi, Veronica Parolin, Luca Tondulli, Lorenzo Belluomini, Camilla Zecchetto, Barbara Avesani, Assunta Biasi, Chiara Bovo, Elena Dazzani, Alessandra Dodi, Sara Gelmini, Luigi Carmine Leta, Giuliana Lo Cascio, Fiorella Lombardo, Eleonora Lucin, Ilaria Asja Martinelli, Luisa Messineo, Viola Moscarda, Sarah Pafumi, Anna Reni, Giulia Sartori, Ilaria Mariangela Scaglione, Yiftach Shoval, Marco Sposito, Evelina Tacconelli, Ilaria Trestini, Valentina Zambonin, Sara Zanelli, Sara Pilotto, and Michele Milella.
• Section of Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of Verona School of Medicine and Verona University Hospital Trust, Verona, Italy. Electronic address: serena.zuliani@aovr.veneto.it.
• Eur. J. Cancer. 2020 Aug 1; 135: 159-169.

BackgroundOn February 23rd, the 1st case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was diagnosed at the University Hospital Trust of Verona, Italy. On March 13th, the Oncology Section was converted into a 22-inpatient bed coronavirus disease (COVID) Unit, and we reshaped our organisation to face the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, while maintaining oncological activities.MethodsWe tracked down (i) volumes of oncological activities (January 1st - March 31st, 2020 versus the same period of 2019), (ii) patients' and caregivers' perception and (iii) SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in oncology health professionals and SARS-CoV-2 infection-related hospital admissions of "active"' oncological patients.ResultsAs compared with the same trimester in 2019, the overall reduction in total numbers of inpatient admissions, chemotherapy administrations and specialist visits in January-March 2020 was 8%, 6% and 3%, respectively; based on the weekly average of daily accesses, reduction in some of the oncological activities became statistically significant from week 11. The overall acceptance of adopted measures, as measured by targeted questionnaires administered to a sample of 241 outpatients, was high (>70%). Overall, 8 of 85 oncology health professionals tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection (all but one employed in the COVID Unit, no hospital admissions and no treatment required); among 471 patients admitted for SARS-CoV-2 infection, 7 had an "active"' oncological disease (2 died of infection-related complications).ConclusionsA slight, but statistically significant reduction in oncology activity was registered during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic peak in Verona, Italy. Organisational and protective measures adopted appear to have contributed to keep infections in both oncological patients and health professionals to a minimum.Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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