Oncology during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges, dilemmas and the psychosocial impact on cancer patients

Konstantinos Tsamakis; Maria Gavriatopoulou; Dimitrios Schizas; Athina Stravodimou; Aikaterini Mougkou; Dimitrios Tsiptsios; Vasileios Sioulas; Eleftherios Spartalis; Athanasios D Sioulas; Charalampos Tsamakis; Nikolaos Charalampakis; Christoph Mueller; Donna Arya; Paul Zarogoulidis; Demetrios A Spandidos; Meletios A Dimopoulos; Charalabos Papageorgiou; Emmanouil Rizos

doi:10.3892/ol.2020.11599

Oncology during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges, dilemmas and the psychosocial impact on cancer patients

Oncol Lett. 2020 Jul;20(1):441-447. doi: 10.3892/ol.2020.11599. Epub 2020 May 8.

Authors

Konstantinos Tsamakis^{1

2}, Maria Gavriatopoulou³, Dimitrios Schizas⁴, Athina Stravodimou⁵, Aikaterini Mougkou⁶, Dimitrios Tsiptsios⁷, Vasileios Sioulas⁸, Eleftherios Spartalis⁹, Athanasios D Sioulas¹⁰, Charalampos Tsamakis¹¹, Nikolaos Charalampakis¹², Christoph Mueller^{2

13}, Donna Arya¹⁴, Paul Zarogoulidis¹⁵, Demetrios A Spandidos¹⁶, Meletios A Dimopoulos¹⁷, Charalabos Papageorgiou¹⁸, Emmanouil Rizos¹

Affiliations

¹ Second Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, 'ATTIKON' University Hospital, 12462 Athens, Greece.
² King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London SE5 8AF, UK.
³ Department of Therapeutics, Alexandra Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11528 Athens, Greece.
⁴ First Department of Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laikon General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece.
⁵ Department of Oncology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne University Hospital, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁶ Paediatric Infectious Diseases Dept, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Neurophysiology, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, Sunderland SR47TP, UK.
⁸ Department of Gynaecologic Oncology MITERA Hospital, 15123 Athens, Greece.
⁹ 2nd Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine, 11527 Athens, Greece.
¹⁰ Gastroenterology Department, Hygeia Hospital, 15123 Athens, Greece.
¹¹ Department of Dermatology, Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Luton LU4 0DZ, UK.
¹² Department of Medical Oncology, Metaxa Cancer Hospital, Pireas, 18537 Athens, Greece.
¹³ South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London SE5 8AZ, UK.
¹⁴ Thornford Park, Elysium Healthcare, Berkshire RG19 8ET, UK.
¹⁵ 3rd Department of Surgery, 'AHEPA' University Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Medical School, 54621 Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹⁶ Laboratory of Clinical Virology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece.
¹⁷ Hematology and Medical Oncology, Department of Clinical Therapeutics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, 11527 Athens, Greece.
¹⁸ First Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, 'EGINITION' Hospital, 11528 Athens, Greece.

Abstract

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented societal turmoil, triggering a rapid, still ongoing, transformation of healthcare provision on a global level. In this new landscape, it is highly important to acknowledge the challenges this pandemic poses on the care of the particularly vulnerable cancer patients and the subsequent psychosocial impact on them. We have outlined our clinical experience in managing patients with gastrointestinal, hematological, gynaecological, dermatological, neurological, thyroid, lung and paediatric cancers in the COVID-19 era and have reviewed the emerging literature around barriers to care of oncology patients and how this crisis affects them. Moreover, evolving treatment strategies and novel ways of addressing the needs of oncology patients in the new context of the pandemic are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-Cov-2; cancer; care; challenges; oncology; pandemic; patients; psychosocial impact; telemedicine.

Publication types

Review