Recommendations for testing and treating outpatient cancer patients in the era of COVID-19 Guidelines


Authors: Reidy-Lagunes, D.; Saltz, L.; Postow, M.; Scordo, M.; Moskowitz, A.; Tew, W.; Zamarin, D.; Redelman-Sidi, G.
Title: Recommendations for testing and treating outpatient cancer patients in the era of COVID-19
Abstract: The clinical spectrum of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still not fully understood. Cancer patients are uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19, and many have been or will be infected. Although an unfortunate minority will die from the infection, most will recover. This poses a challenge in which clinicians must weigh the benefits of initiation or resumption of antineoplastic therapy against the risks that antineoplastic treatment may worsen outcomes related to COVID-19 infection. A recent study of 423 patients at our institution found that patients in active cancer treatment who develop COVID-19 infection did not fare any worse than other hospitalized patients, yet guidance as to who requires testing prior to antineoplastic therapy and when to resume therapy post-COVID-19 diagnosis remains unknown. Our institution, therefore, commissioned a task force to help create guidelines for treating oncologists using available published literature. The task force focused on the ambulatory care testing guidelines only, because all inpatients receiving antineoplastic therapy are tested for COVID-19 prior to hospital admission. The guidelines focus solely on the safety and well-being of the individual patient undergoing antineoplastic therapy and are not designed to address infection control issues. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Keywords: antineoplastic agents; antineoplastic agent; neoplasm; neoplasms; practice guideline; virology; practice guidelines as topic; outpatient; isolation and purification; complication; outpatients; humans; human; covid-19; sars-cov-2; covid-19 testing
Journal Title: JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Volume: 113
Issue: 7
ISSN: 0027-8874
Publisher: Oxford University Press  
Date Published: 2021-07-01
Start Page: 820
End Page: 822
Language: English
DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djaa111
PUBMED: 32797188
PROVIDER: scopus
PMCID: PMC7454724
DOI/URL:
Notes: Article -- Export Date: 1 September 2021 -- Source: Scopus
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MSK Authors
  1. Leonard B Saltz
    790 Saltz
  2. Michael Andrew Postow
    361 Postow
  3. Dmitriy Zamarin
    201 Zamarin
  4. Diane Lauren Reidy
    294 Reidy
  5. Alison Moskowitz
    339 Moskowitz
  6. William P Tew
    244 Tew
  7. Michael Scordo
    365 Scordo