The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the entire world. Spreading from its origins in China and reaching nearly every continent, the disease has caused scores of deaths. Cancer patients are especially vulnerable to severe complications resulting from the disease.
Unfortunately, there have been many problems accessing cancer care during the pandemic. Many surgeries have been postponed, and some patients have not been able to receive chemotherapy treatments. Dr. Randall Gibb explores the difficulties that cancer patients have experienced due to COVID-19 and explains how hospitals and oncologists are adapting to the new challenges.
Access to Care
While physicians have been focusing on COVID-19 patients, other hospital departments and outpatient offices have been closed entirely. Chemotherapy patients have, in some cases, been forced to delay their treatment. This could lead to even more serious problems in the future.
The closure of departments unrelated to COVID-19 could mean that cancer patients are not receiving the services they need to prolong their lives. As the pandemic begins to ease, doctor’s offices and outpatient departments are beginning to reopen, so more cancer patients are allowed to see their oncologists again.
Dr. Randall Gibb explains why cancer patients are at a higher risk from the novel coronavirus and why they should resume treatment as soon as possible given the extreme circumstances in healthcare today.
A Higher Risk of Complications
A study by Chinese scientists found that patients with cancer were at a significantly higher risk for serious complications stemming from COVID-19. Immunosuppression and general ill health are thought to be the culprits. Cancer patients are often immunosuppressed because they have undergone chemotherapy or radiation, both of which can damage the body’s response to an infection of any kind.
The risk of discontinuing chemotherapy is that the patient’s cancer may be allowed to spread in the meantime. This could lead to a shortened lifespan for the patient and a host of other complications.
Postponing Surgeries
Postponing cancer surgeries also presents a serious risk to patients’ health. In some cases, outpatient surgeries have been able to go forward, helping patients with cancer recover. Dr. Randall Gibb believes that hospitals should do everything they can to resume surgeries for patients with cancer.
Infection Control Measures
In the early months of the pandemic, hospitals were crowded with COVID-19 patients. These patients and the medical staff caring for them caused the disease to spread throughout a hospital system. This made cancer patients unwilling to go into the hospital or medical center for treatment. Oncologists sometimes saw their patients through telemedicine, but this does not solve the problem of receiving chemotherapy.
Some doctors were able to prescribe oral medication for chemotherapy for certain types of cancer, which theoretically could be given at home. Chemotherapy patients need to be closely monitored by their doctors.
Hospitals and doctors’ offices needed to rely on increased infection control procedures to keep their staff and patients safe. Hospital staff from other departments were deployed as cleaners, making sure that surfaces and floors were kept clean.
Doctors and patients alike also wore personal protective equipment or PPE. In the hospital, doctors and medical staff were able to wear medical-grade masks and face shields. Even with these precautions, many medical staffers caught the virus and experienced complications.
Hand washing, social distancing, and PPE are all good precautions against COVID. The easiest way for cancer patients to avoid becoming ill is to stay away from people outside their household. This means that cancer patients, along with vulnerable patients over the age of 65, were not able to go out in public or visit family and friends. This caused social problems, but being isolated from family is a cost that most patients were willing to pay.
The Risks of Delaying Treatment
Physicians were alarmed in many cases that patients were staying away from cancer care. Especially for emergent or new cases when early detection is key to a cure, wasting time because of the COVID-19 pandemic could be a serious disadvantage.
Delaying cancer treatment could lead to a worsening of the disease, with tumors growing and damage to other organs in the body increasing. Dr. Randall Gibb wants patients to know that delaying their cancer treatment is putting themselves at risk for complications.
Returning to Normal
As the number of COVID cases is beginning to go down across the country, many doctors’ offices and hospitals have been able to reopen their doors to cancer patients. While taking extra precautions to avoid transmitting the disease, patients in less affected areas are able to receive chemotherapy and radiation again, and surgeries are able to go forward. Infection control procedures have been stepped up, and telemedicine is used when in-person visits are not available.
While the focus on COVID has interrupted other areas of medicine, doctors encourage their patients to continue treatment when at all possible. This could extend their lives and keep them away from serious complications.