Changing Paediatric Cancer Practice in COVID-19 Times

Introduction: Experts dealing with the treatment of cancer in children believe that the COVID-19 pandemic could pose a serious global challenge to the delivery of affordable and equitable treatment to children with cancer. In this paper we report our experience in the management of children with cancer in these COVID-19 times. Patients and Methods: Out-patient case records, in-patient case records, imaging pictures of all children with cancer attending our hospital were retrieved and analyzed. Results: Our study period extended from Dec 2019 until the end of April 2020. During this period, it was observed that the number of children attending the outpatient department, undergoing day-care procedures including chemotherapy, as well as children undergoing surgery progressively declined due to COVID-19 associated lockdown. Efforts were made to help the children and their families to gain easy access to treatment. Conclusion: COVID-19 has disrupted the world and has caused widespread anxiety among families of children with cancer. The medical fraternity with active help from all agencies should work out measures to reduce these difficulties faced by children and their families to provide the means to ensure the continuity of curative treatments and palliative care as effectively as possible.