Comprehensively adapting cancer care and clinical cancer research to the COVID-19 pandemic is a necessity, researchers and doctors at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital write in a paper published in the journal Nature Medicine. In it, seven top European cancer centres propose adaptations to protect patients.

Cancer patients are particularly vulnerable to complications if they get infected by the new coronavirus, saysJonas Bergh, chair ofCancer Research KI, professor at theDepartment of Oncology-Pathologyat Karolinska Institutet and consultant at Karolinska University Hospital. We must therefore protect them from the virus without compromising continuity of care.

The article has been written by representatives of the seven centres that make upCancer Core Europe, which together conduct extensive clinical research and treat 70,000 new cancer patients a year. The centres in Milan, Barcelona, Cambridge, Paris, Amsterdam and Heidelberg are, like Karolinska Institutet, facing very difficult challenges imposed by the pandemic.

Several changes made

Our aim is to quickly communicate our experiences from the first months of the pandemic and give general advice and guidelines to other cancer clinics, saysIngemar Ernberg, chair of Karolinska InstitutetsPersonalised Cancer Medicine (PCM) programmeand professor at theDepartment of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet. Were in an earlier essentially unknown medical and ethical reality, which means that caregivers have to muster all their knowhow and experience to make vital clinical decisions.

Treatments have had to be postponed or modified to protect the patients immune systems and many more patient follow-ups are performed remotely. Some clinical research studies have been rescheduled or even put on hold if they are judged to expose patients to extra risk.

We and other cancer centres around the world will continue to compile and report new data on the impact that the pandemic is having on cancer care to provide a solid foundation for future choices and decisions, saysLuigi De Petris, oncologist at the Cancer Theme, Karolinska University Hospital and researcher at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet. This will be a dynamic and swift process in which we hope that our combined experiences will come to benefit others.

Suggested adaptions

The article gives examples of what needs to be considered and possibly changed in order to create continuity in cancer care during the pandemic:

The research was part-financed with a grant from the Cancer Research Funds of Radiumhemmet.

Publication

Caring for patients with cancer in the COVID-19 era. Joris van de Haar, Louisa R. Hoes, Charlotte E. Coles, Kenneth Seamon, Stefan Frhling, Dirk Jger, Franco Valenza, Filippo de Braud, Luigi De Petris, Jonas Bergh, Ingemar Ernberg, Benjamin Besse, Fabrice Barlesi, Elena Garralda, Alejandro Piris-Gimnez, Michael Baumann, Giovanni Apolone, Jean Charles Soria, Josep Tabernero, Carlos Caldas, Emile E. Voest.Nature Medicine,online 16 April 2020, doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0874-8.

This article was first published on 29 April by Karolinska Institutet.

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