• Dominic Fong, Simon Rauch, Christian Petter, Eva Haspinger, Monika Alber, and Manfred Mitterer.
• Department of Oncology and Hematology, Franz Tappeiner Hospital, Merano, Italy dominic.fong@i-med.ac.at.
• ESMO Open. 2020 Jun 1; 5 (3).

BackgroundOptimal management of patients with cancer during COVID-19 pandemic is still pending.MethodsOur patients were advised to maintain their scheduled appointments, and planned cancer treatment was continued without unnecessary delays in an outpatient setting. Additional strict preventive infection measures were rapidly implemented at our outpatient department. When COVID-19 test became widely available, universal testing of healthcare workers and vigorous screening of all patients coming to our facility for COVID-19 infection were performed by SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse transcription PCR on rhinopharyngeal swab.ResultsAs of the data cut-off on 9 April 2020, a total of 156 oncology patients with a median age of 67 (range 26-86) years and 63 haematology patients (median age 69 years, range 23-89) were screened for COVID-19 during active cancer treatment. Prevalence (1.8%; 4/219) of COVID-19 in patients with cancer was significantly higher compared with a respective control group of asymptomatic counterparts (p=0.018). Outcomes of COVID-19 positive patients were good, with only one observed death due to progression of advanced metastatic disease.ConclusionOur data indicate that continuation of anticancer treatment in epidemic areas during the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be safe and feasible, if adequate and strict preventive measures are vigorously and successfully carried out.© Author (s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

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