Autor según el artículo: Nguyen, Nam P.; Vinh-Hung, Vincent; Baumert, Brigitta G.; Zamagni, Alice; Arenas, Meritxell; Motta, Micaela; Carlos Lara, Pedro; Myint, Arthur Sun; Bonet, Marta; Popescu, Tiberiu; Te Vuong; Appalanaido, Gokula Kumar; Trigo, Lurdes; Karlsson, Ulf; Thariat, Juliette;
Departamento: Ciències Mèdiques Bàsiques
Autor/es de la URV: Arenas Prat, Meritxell
Palabras clave: Treatment Targeted therapy Older Navigation Mobility Epidemic Corona virus 19 Care Cancer patients Barriers Adults
Resumen: The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented as it reached all countries in the world within a record short period of time. Even though COVID-19 infection may be just severe in any adults, older adults (65-year-old or older) may experience a higher mortality rate. Among those affected, cancer patients may have a worse outcome compared to the general population because of their depressed immune status. As the health resources of most countries are limited, clinicians may face painful decisions about which patients to save if they require artificial ventilation. Cancer patients, especially the older ones, may be denied supportive care because of their shorter life expectancy. Thus, special considerations should be taken to prevent infection of older cancer patients and to provide them with adequate social support during their cancer treatment. The following proposal was reached: (1) Education of health care providers about the special needs of older cancer patients and their risks of infection. (2) Special consideration such as surgical masks and separate scheduling should be made to protect them from being infected. (3) Social services such as patient navigators should be provided to ensure adequate medical supply, food, and daily transportation to cancer centers. (4) Close monitoring through phone calls, telecommunication to ensure social distancing and psychological support from patient family to prevent anxiety and depression. (5) Shorter course of radiotherapy by use of hypofractionation where possible to decrease the needs for daily transportation and exposure to infection. (6) Enrollment of older cancer patients in clinical trials for potential antiviral medications if infection does occur. (7) Home health care telemedicine may be an effective strategy for older cancer patients with COVID-19 infection to avoid hospital admission when health care resources become restricted. (8) For selected patients, immunotherapy and targeted therapy may become the systemic therapy of choice for older cancer patients and need to be tested in clinical trials.
Áreas temáticas: Oncology Medicina iii Cancer research
Acceso a la licencia de uso: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
Direcció de correo del autor: meritxell.arenas@urv.cat
Identificador del autor: 0000-0003-0815-2570
Fecha de alta del registro: 2023-02-19
Versión del articulo depositado: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Referencia al articulo segun fuente origial: Cancers. 12 (5):
Referencia de l'ítem segons les normes APA: Nguyen, Nam P.; Vinh-Hung, Vincent; Baumert, Brigitta G.; Zamagni, Alice; Arenas, Meritxell; Motta, Micaela; Carlos Lara, Pedro; Myint, Arthur Sun; Bo (2020). Older Cancer Patients during the COVID-19 Epidemic: Practice Proposal of the International Geriatric Radiotherapy Group. Cancers, 12(5), -. DOI: 10.3390/cancers12051287
URL Documento de licencia: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
Entidad: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Año de publicación de la revista: 2020
Tipo de publicación: Journal Publications