Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management of cancer patients: the experience of the cancer outpatients department of a university hospital in Paris

Abstract

Cancer patients are a highly vulnerable group in the COVID-19 pandemic and it has been necessary for oncology units to adapt to this unexpected situation. We present our management of outpatients with cancer during the pandemic. We applied two major adaptations: extending the intervals between injections for maintenance therapy and protocol adaptation for patients with comorbidities. Between 17 March and 30 April 2020, 406 patients were treated in our outpatients department. Protocols were adapted for 94 (23.1%) patients. Among them, 49% had an extended interval between treatment administrations, 22.3% had modified protocols to reduce toxicity, 20.2% had therapeutic interruptions and 5.3% did not receive their treatment because of a COVID-19 infection. Overall, protocol adaptations concerned more than 20% of the patients. This pandemic was an opportunity for oncologists to re-examine the risk versus benefit balance of administering immunosuppressive treatment and highlighted that oncology daily routine should not be applied automatically.