Ecancermedicalscience
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Ecancermedicalscience · Jan 2020
ReviewA practical approach to the management of breast cancer in the COVID-19 era and beyond.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a major shift in how breast services are being utilised and managed. The guidelines relating to this have been published by recognised medical associations from the UK, Europe and the USA, addressing many aspects of breast cancer care. ⋯ However, until there is a definite management strategy for COVID-19, such as a vaccine being developed, it is likely that there will still be a significant impact from COVID-19 on breast cancer care. This paper, therefore, aims to highlight the current guidance and evidence regarding breast cancer management in the era of COVID-19, and also aims to look at future management strategies in this period of uncertainty.
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Ecancermedicalscience · Jan 2020
ReviewEvidence-based recommendations for gastrointestinal cancers during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Brazilian Gastrointestinal Tumours Group.
As of 2020, the world is facing the great challenge of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While the overall mortality is low, the virus is highly virulent and may infect millions of people worldwide. This will consequently burden health systems, particularly by those individuals considered to be at high risk of severe complications from COVID-19. Such risk factors include advanced age, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, diabetes and cancer. However, few data on the outcomes of cancer patients infected by SARS CoV-2 exist. Therefore, there is a lack of guidance on how to manage cancer patients during the pandemic. We sought to propose specific recommendations about the management of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. ⋯ Our recommendations emphasise the importance of treating cancer patients, using the best evidence available, while simultaneously taking into consideration the world-wide health resource hyperutilisation to treat non-cancer COVID-19 patients.
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Ecancermedicalscience · Jan 2020
EditorialManagement of cervical cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: a challenge for developing countries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, health services worldwide are going through important adaptations to assist patients infected with COVID-19, at the same time as continuing to provide assistance to other potentially life-threatening diseases. Although patients with cancer may be at increased risk for severe events related to COVID-19 infection, their oncologic treatments frequently cannot be delayed for long periods without jeopardising oncologic outcomes. ⋯ Although cervical cancer is the fourth cause of cancer death among women, it receives little attention from international Oncology societies and scientific research studies. In this review paper, we discuss the cervical cancer landscape and provide specialists recommendations for its management during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly focused on LMICs' reality.
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Ecancermedicalscience · Jan 2020
RENATA study-Latin American prospective experience: clinical outcome of patients treated with palbociclib in hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer-real-world use.
In hormone receptor-positive, HER-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced breast cancer (ABC) endocrine therapy (ET) plus cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) in first and second line improved progression-free survival (PFS), overall response rate (ORR) and clinical benefit rate (CB) without deterioration in quality of life compared with ET alone. In addition, recent data showed improvement in overall survival (OS) for premenopausal women in first line setting and for different subgroups of patients in second line. Since 2015, in Argentina, the combination of ET with CDK4/6i is a standard of care in HR+/HER2- ABC. ⋯ This is the first prospective evidence of real-world use of palbociclib in a Latin American population. We found similar outcomes to the PALOMA-2 and PALOMA-3 randomised trials and Real-World Data already published, with lower incidence of side effects and treatment discontinuation, but with higher incidence of febrile neutropenia.
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Ecancermedicalscience · Jan 2020
EditorialAdditional challenges faced by cancer patients in Gaza due to COVID-19.
Cancer patients in conflict settings experience significant barriers in accessing chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as palliative care and psychosocial support. Now they face an additional possible risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus and the indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on movement restrictions and their access to care. In this commentary, we highlight that despite the low COVID-19 burden in conflict settings like Gaza, COVID-19 could lead to further inequity in cancer care and poorer outcomes for Palestinians with cancer. This is due to the pre-existing shortage in cancer resources as well as the lack of context-specific guidelines to prepare for COVID-19 in war-torn settings.