How should you manage a coronavirus infected/suspected patient who is receiving radiotherapy and cannot interrupt or delay their cancer treatment?

Hi Everyone,

I agree with all the comments—this is certainly a fluid situation. We have not had a confirmed COVID-19 case, but we have developed a plan. If it is deemed a known COVID-19 patient, and it is elected to continue treatment by the treating physician, the treatment will happen at the end o...

Agree with @Dr. First Last, however wanted to clarify 'symptomatic'. If a patient is symptomatic (in the ICU, on high flow O2 or CPAP or BiPAP) we would hold treatment. If, however, the patient is symptomatic but 'mild - moderate' you could continue to treat the patient on a case-by-case basis based...

Lehigh Valley Health Network is an Academic Community Hospital with a main facility in Allentown, PA (4 linacs, GK, HDR) and two smaller facilities in Bethlehem, PA (2 linacs) and East Stroudsburg, PA (2 linacs, HDR). I was asked to draft guidelines for our facility, which I will post below for othe...

A patient with confirmed COVID-19 would be tested at this time due to symptoms, and exposure. While the patients is symptomatic, I would recommend interrupting chemotherapy and radiation as we would do with any other serious infection. Once symptoms subside and pulmonary function is stable, I would ...

Here is the Yale guideline mentioned above. This effort has been led by @Dr. First Last, @Dr. First Last, and @Dr. First Last with contributions from the entire faculty for each specific cancer site:

Yale Radiation Oncology COVID-19 Guidelines Version 6.0 (3/20/2020 12pm)

Like most centers, we have a plan in place for treating these patients but don't have a patient yet with confirmed COVID-19 infection. The plan includes a special team completely protected, end of the day treatment, special entrance and exit and terminal clean of the area.

I would say for patients w...

There is a lot to consider. There is a similar algorithm floating around from Yale to Dr Prosnitz, with which I agree. We have been triaging patients for the last two weeks to minimize volume on our linacs in the coming weeks through delaying judiciously and expediting patients that could finish wit...