Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun;17(6):332-334.
doi: 10.1038/s41571-020-0375-1.

Cancer and COVID-19 - potentially deleterious effects of delaying radiotherapy

Himanshu Nagar  1 , Silvia C Formenti  2
Affiliations

Cancer and COVID-19 - potentially deleterious effects of delaying radiotherapy

Himanshu Nagar et al. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Radiotherapy can be safely delivered during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, often through use of hypofractionated regimens, which minimize the number of visits to treatment centres while also avoiding potentially detrimental delays in the delivery of cancer care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

S.C.F. declares funding for clinical trials from Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck and Varian, speaker and/or advisory honoraria from Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eisai, Elekta, EMD Serono/Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, MedImmune, Merck US, Regeneron, Varian, ViewRay. All interests declared are not directly related to this manuscript. H.N. declares no competing interests.

References

    1. Wild AT, et al. Lymphocyte-sparing effect of stereotactic body radiation therapy in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 2016;94:571–579. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2015.11.026. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lipsitch M, Swerdlow DL, Finelli L. Defining the epidemiology of Covid-19 - studies needed. N. Engl. J. Med. 2020;382:1194–1196. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2002125. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huang J, Barbera L, Brouwers M, Browman G, Mackillop WJ. Does delay in starting treatment affect the outcomes of radiotherapy? A systematic review. J. Clin. Oncol. 2003;21:555–563. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2003.04.171. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Darby S, et al. Effect of radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery on 10-year recurrence and 15-year breast cancer death: meta-analysis of individual patient data for 10,801 women in 17 randomised trials. Lancet. 2011;378:1707–1716. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61629-2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lanciano RM, Pajak TF, Martz K, Hanks GE. The influence of treatment time on outcome for squamous cell cancer of the uterine cervix treated with radiation: a patterns-of-care study. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 1993;25:391–397. doi: 10.1016/0360-3016(93)90058-4. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms