Fedele P, Sanna V, Fancellu A, Marino A, Calvani N, Cinieri S. De-escalating cancer treatments during COVID 19 pandemic: Is metronomic chemotherapy a reasonable option?
Crit Rev Oncol Hematol 2020;
157:103148. [PMID:
33254036 PMCID:
PMC7672334 DOI:
10.1016/j.critrevonc.2020.103148]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2020] [Revised: 10/24/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
COVID 19 pandemic represents an emergency for public health services.
The reorganization of the healthcare system has had an important impact on the management of cancer patients.
Oral treatments and de-escalation strategies are encouraged.
Oral metronomic chemotherapy could be a reasonable treatment option in some cancer patients subgroups during COVID 19 pandemic.
COVID 19 pandemic represents an emergency for public health services and containment measures to reduce the risk of infection have been promptly activated worldwide.
The healthcare systems reorganization has had a major impact on the management of cancer patients who are considered at high risk of infection.
Recommendations and guidelines on how to manage cancer patients during COVID 19 pandemic have been published. Oral administration of chemotherapy is recommended to limit the access of cancer patients to hospital facilities and in some cases to guarantee the continuum of care.
Low-dose metronomic administration of chemotherapy with different drugs and schedules has emerged in the last years as a possible alternative to conventional chemotherapy, due to its promising tumor control rates and excellent safety profiles. Moreover, given that many metronomic schedules use the oral route administration, it could represent a therapeutic strategy to ensure continuum of cancer care during COVID 19 pandemic.
In this review we have selected all the clinical studies that have used the metronomic strategy, especially with oral drugs, in order to identify the subgroups of cancer patients who can benefit most from a metronomic approach even during COVID 19 pandemic.
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