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. 2020 Apr 13:22:100291.
doi: 10.1016/j.jbo.2020.100291. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Adapting palliative radiation therapy for bone metastases during the Covid-19 pandemic: GEMO position paper

Sébastien Thureau  1 , Jean Christophe Faivre  2 , Richard Assaker  3 , Emmanuel Biver  4 , Cyrille B Confavreux  5 , Françoise Debiais  6 , Martine Duterque-Coquillaud  7 , Francesco Giammarile  8 , Dominique Heymann  9 , Frédéric E Lecouvet  10 , Laetitia Morardet  11 , Frederic Paycha  12 , Jean-Jacques Body  13 , Marie-Hélène Vieillard  14
Affiliations

Adapting palliative radiation therapy for bone metastases during the Covid-19 pandemic: GEMO position paper

Sébastien Thureau et al. J Bone Oncol. .

Abstract

The current health crisis caused by COVID-19 is a challenge for oncology treatment, especially when it comes to radiotherapy. Cancer patients are already known to be very fragile and COVID-19 brings about the risk of severe respiratory complications. In order to treat patients safely while protecting medical teams, the entire health care system must optimize the way it approaches prevention and treatment at a time when social distancing is key to stemming this pandemic. All indications and treatment modalities must be re-discussed. This is particularly the case for radiotherapy of bone metastases for which it is possible to reduce the number of sessions, the frequency of transport and the complexity of treatments. These changes will have to be discussed according to the organization of each radiotherapy department and the health situation, while medical teams must remain vigilant about the risks of complications of bone metastases, particularly spinal metastases. In this short piece, the members of the GEMO (the European Study Group of Bone Metastases) offer a number of recommendations to achieve the above objectives, both in general and in relation to five of the most common situations on radiation therapy for bone metastases.

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Conflict of interest statement

All autors declare no conflict of interest.

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