Older cancer patients during the COVID-19 epidemic: practice proposal of the international geriatric radiotherapy group

Authors :Nam P. Nguyen, Vincent Vinh-Hung, Brigitta G. Baumert, Alice Zamagni, Meritxell Arenas, Micaela Motta, Pedro Carlos Lara, Arthur Sun Myint, Marta Bonet, Tiberiu Popescu, Te Vuong, Gokula Kumar Appalanaido, Lurdes Trigo, Ulf Karlsson, and Juliette Thariat

Titles of Publication :Older cancer patients during the COVID-19 epidemic: practice proposal of the international geriatric radiotherapy group

Journal Name :Cancers

Quartile : Q1

Impact Factor :6.126

Link :10.3390/cancers12051287 

Description :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 study 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.