330P COVID and cancer: Choosing between hammer and anvil

Abstract

The global Covid Pandemic has changed the world in last 6 months. The medical, social and logistic effects of the pandemic have been enormous. Many countries including India were put in absolute lockdown to prevent the transmission of this deadly virus. Cancer patients were precariously placed with the effect of lockdown as their immunocompromised status predisposed them to complications due to Covid while if they follow the lockdown, they were at increased risk of disease progression. This is an retrospective study from a tertiary Cancer Institute in Delhi, India which analyses the outcomes of COVID positivity in cancer patients undergoing treatment. 35 patients undergoing treatment for various non hematological malignancies and who were detected Covid positive by RT PCR were analysed. The time period was between April 2020 and June 2020. 35 patients were analysed. 10 patients had NSCLC while 7 patients had ca breast.Remaining all patients had various non hematological malignancies. Out of which 22 patients were managed on OPD basis and 13 patients required hospitalisation. Out of 13 patients, 3 patients required ICU care in view of severe symptoms. 2 patients died of the disease and superimposed Covid infections. Out of these, 1 patient had received chemo in the prior week whilst the other had progressive disease and GI perforation as the cause of the mortality. Chemotherapy was restarted in 15 of these patients while 2 patients also underwent surgery after recovery. In our dataset, Covid infection was not associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity in Cancer patients. Large scale collective data sets are required to confirm these findings. Our data indicates that Oncological treatment should continue as usual in Covid pandemic while taking appropriate precautions.