Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and covid-19 diffusion are an international public health emergency.1 Cancer patients are particularly exposed to infections and their potential complications.2 In this context, the usual clinical decision-making process in radiation therapy is being consistently revised.3 There is an urgent need to share expertise and offer emergency guidance. It is crucial to minimise contacts and to reduce the complexity of radiation treatments where possible to optimise the workforce, keeping intact the effectiveness of the interventions.4 Radiation and systemic therapy modifications should be implemented depending on local circumstances.5 A general guiding principle should include approaches where clinical equivalence supported by trials testing de-escalation strategies is present even without level 1–2 evidence (box 1, bullet points 1).3 Patients with cancer have an intrinsic degree of frailty and therefore are prone to covid-19 complications. Age and comorbidities have been reported as independent risk factors for poor outcome during covid-19 infection and, of note, more than half of cancer patients are elderly and have significant comorbidities (box 1, bullet points 2).6 Hence, an appropriate evaluation of the risk-benefit of radiation therapy treatments is cogent. Urgent cases and non-deferrable treatments (ie, active tumours, spinal cord compression, life threatening bleeding) should be initiated or continued, provided there is full compliance with the safety regulations of local authorities for both patients and staff members. In non-urgent cases, irradiation can be postponed to an extent, depending on the clinical setting and the possibility to offer patients bridging systemic therapies. Whenever radiation therapy is indicated, dose prescription, fractionation and delivery techniques should be adapted, reduced in duration, and optimised (box 1, bullet points 3 and 4). A timely example of precision medicine application is non-metastatic breast cancer radiation …
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