Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai, India.
Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2021 Apr;4(2):e1320. doi: 10.1002/cnr2.1320. Epub 2020 Dec 9.
COVID-19 outbreak was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Over the last 3 months, the pandemic has challenged the diagnosis and treatment of all cancer, including rectal cancer. Constraints in resources call for a change in the treatment strategy without compromising efficacy.
Delivery of shorter treatment schedules for radiotherapy offers advantages like short overall treatment time, improved throughput on the machine, improved compliance and reduced risk of transmission of COVID 19. Other strategies include delaying surgery, reducing the intensity of chemotherapy and adoption of organ preservation approach.
The curative treatment of rectal cancer should not be hindered during the COVID pandemic, and modifications in the multi-modality treatment will help achieve quality care.
2020 年 3 月，世界卫生组织宣布 COVID-19 疫情为大流行。在过去的 3 个月中，这场大流行给包括直肠癌在内的所有癌症的诊断和治疗带来了挑战。资源的限制要求改变治疗策略，而不影响疗效。
缩短放疗治疗方案的时间提供了许多优势，如缩短总治疗时间、提高机器的吞吐量、提高患者的顺应性和降低 COVID-19 传播的风险。其他策略包括延迟手术、减少化疗的强度和采用器官保存方法。
在 COVID 大流行期间，不应阻碍直肠癌的治愈性治疗，多模式治疗的改变将有助于实现高质量的护理。
