Diagnosis and locoregional treatment of patients with breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

We are facing a pandemic that is going to affect a significant part of the population. At the end of April in the world there are about 3,000,000 cases, with 205,000 deaths and 860,000 patients recovered.The response to this pandemic has in many cases led to a significant change in the daily work of caring for cancer patients, the good results of which depend largely on time-adjusted protocols and multidisciplinary treatments.We present a review of local, surgical and radiotherapy treatment together with authors’ recommendations made from personal experience on ways to act in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.The multidisciplinary Breast Committees must continue to meet weekly in videoconference format. All surgical actions and irradiations must be carried out with maximum safety for both the patients and the participating teams. Hypofractionation in radiation therapy should be the standard treatment. Sometimes it is recommended to apply a primary systemic treatment or even a primary irradiation. Great coordination between the surgical and oncology teams, both medical and radiotherapeutic, is essential.