Cancer patients are considered vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. During the pandemic, cancer patients may need to continue their regular treatment of chemotherapy and / or radiotherapy and therefore must visit a hospital unit. As such, they may be at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection by means of close contact to other patients and health care workers. Hospitals may implement policies to identify symptomatic subjects and limit their access to the chemotherapy / radiotherapy unit. However, asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients may escape these filters and potentially be contagious to other patients and their health-related workers that care for other several patients. Therefore, there is a real risk of an outbreak that affects a particularly fragile patient population. Patients and their doctors need to know what is the risk associated to visiting a chemotherapy unit in order to decide if the risk outweighs the benefits of cancer treatment in their particular case. To date, this risk is unknown. The study will test patients and health care workers for COVID-19 infection during the peak of the pandemic in a chemotherapy unit in Mexico in order to determine this risk.
In this is prospective cohort, patients with solid tumors and healthcare workers of the
chemotherapy and radiotherapy unit at our center will be followed with a daily digital survey
and optionally with biweekly PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2. People with symptoms and / or with a
positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 will be notified and recommendations according to clinical
state will be emitted.
Hypothesis: COVID-19 infection rate among patients with solid tumors treated with
chemotherapy and / or radiotherapy will be less than 5% during the pandemic period.
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients with solid tumors receiving active oncological treatment (chemotherapy, or
radiotherapy or biologic therapy) at our center.
- Age: no limit
- Gender: men and women.
- Health-related worker treating patients with solid tumors at the chemotherapy and
radiotherapy unit at our center.
- People who sign an informed consent.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients with an hematologic cancer.
- Patients with cancer under surveillance or without active oncological treatment, or
receiving treatment in another center.
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán
Mexico City, Mexico
Fidel D Huitzil Meléndez, MD, Principal Investigator
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran