Managementul tratamentului şi urmărirea pacienţilor cu cancer de sân în perioada pandemiei de COVID-19

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women world­wide and the second cause of cancer in both sexes. In Romania, it is the leading cause of cancer, according to Cancer Country Profile 2020. Some breast cancer treatments – including che­mo­the­rapy, targeted therapies and radiation – can weaken the immune system. People with weakened immune systems or lung problems due to radiotherapy pneumonitis or with lung metastases have a much higher risk of complications if they are infected with SARS-CoV-2. On the 20th of April 2020, there were reported 2,444,209 coronavirus cases and 167,986 deaths. There are various recommendations amidst COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnostic and treatment of patients with different kinds of solid tumors. Almost all professional societies try to identify the optimal protocols for cancer facilities, to mi­ni­mize the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in both inpatient and out­patient settings. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, rou­tine check­ups, elective, unnecessary surgeries and other pro­ce­dures have been cut back or delayed to help minimize ex­po­sure to the virus which has already infected more than 2.4 mil­lion peo­ple. The recommendations were divided according to the phase of pandemic manifestations on different countries and ac­cord­ing to priority. In this review, we want to reinforce and bring together all recommendations made by different so­cie­ties involved in the treatment management of breast cancer pa­tients, because this pandemic led to new ways of dealing can­cer patients.