COVID-19 and cancer: Looking for evidence
Ce dossier présente un ensemble d'articles concernant la prise en charge des cancers durant la crise sanitaire liée au COVID-19
How will COVID-19 outbreak impact on millions of individuals already living with cancer and on those who will be newly diagnosed with cancer in every country of the world? A question widely brought to public attention by the international cancer community and the media, with more than 500 articles (from guidelines on how to manage cancer cases to clinical case reports) published between March and April 2020 in the scientific literature. The disruption caused by coronavirus on health systems has led hospitals to suspend non urgent cancer diagnostic procedures and treatments, including elective surgery, while cancer patients have been deterred from seeking care at scheduled intervals. How long will the COVID-19 pandemic last and what effect will it have on primary and secondary prevention (i.e., screening), diagnosis, treatment and care of cancer patients? Presently, in the absence of a vaccine and of anti COVID-19 drugs, only anectodical evidence is available to answer crucial issues like whether any change of practice will negatively affect cancer prognosis and outcomes (e.g., overall survival), or whether SARS-CoV-2 infected cancer patients will be discriminated as regards drugs delivery and admission in intensive care units, or whether postponed screening tests (e.g., mammogram for breast cancer, fecal occult blood test for colon cancer, HPV test for cervical cancer) will increase the number of new cancer cases
European Journal of Surgical Oncology , éditorial en libre accès, 2019