Cancer care and treatment in the Covid-19 era
Currently, the Covid-19 pandemic is still continuing in the globe due to
the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. So far (May 6, 2022),
there were more than 513.955 million confirmed cases and over 6.24
million deaths in countries worldwide according to the reports of the
World Health Organization. Since cancer cases are an independent and
high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and adverse outcomes of Covid-19,
particularly with several risk factors, such as advancing age, smoking
history, and concurrent comorbidities, better cancer management is
needed and palliative care should be the prioritization during the
pandemic8,9, and it’s also a chance to remodel cancer
care in the globe10.
On the one hand, the Covid-19 pandemic leads to an increased risk of
fatal outcomes and higher mortality, and lowering quality of treatment,
care, and life in patients with cancer11, and
assessment of the quality of the samples and associated data in Biobanks
is also a novel challenge for cancer research12. On
the other hand, treatment of Covid-19 in cancer cases is a big challenge
because we need not only to protect cardiovascular system by vaccination
and bio-agents during antiviral and anti-thrombus treatments, but also
enhance survival rates of cancer and improve cancer outcomes. However,
it remains uncertain regarding Covid-19 vaccine efficacy in cancer
patients even if there are positive humoral and cellular immune
responses13. Moreover, there are the risks of
vaccine-related adverse events. Herein, the reopening of “CANCER
MOONSHOT” during the pandemic and post-Covid-19 era is a fantastic
decision with a special significance and value. It will help us to
realize the transformation from cancer oppression to conquer cancer
(Figure 1).