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Case Reports
. 2021 Feb;26(2):e336-e337.
doi: 10.1002/onco.13563. Epub 2020 Oct 23.

To Transplant or Not to Transplant During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic? That Is the Question

Dario Marino  1 , Silvia Finotto  1 , Umberto Basso  1 , Antonella Galiano  1 , Maital Bolshinsky  1 , Ottavia Amato  1 , Piero Marson  2 , Tiziana Tison  2 , Anna Colpo  2 , Vittorina Zagonel  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

To Transplant or Not to Transplant During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic? That Is the Question

Dario Marino et al. Oncologist. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 has grown to be a global public health emergency. The rapid spread of the infection has raised many questions in the oncohematological scientific community regarding the appropriateness of high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). We here report two cases of patients who received ASCT at our Institute during the epidemic in Italy, affected with Hodgkin lymphoma and germ cell tumor, respectively. The two patients underwent a nasopharyngeal swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on hospital admittance and during the period of bone marrow aplasia. They were attended to exclusively by dedicated health care staff who followed specifically implemented protocols for bedside nursing and care. They completed the procedure without unexpected side effect. Our experience demonstrates how ASCT can be performed safely if procedures are reorganized ad hoc to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures of potential conflicts of interest may be found at the end of this article.

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