key: cord-0801351-htmi9fqu
authors: Indini, Alice; Rijavec, Erika; Ghidini, Michele; Cattaneo, Monica; Grossi, Francesco
title: Letter of response to comments on: Developing a risk assessment score for cancer patients during COVID-19 pandemic: a war on two fronts.
date: 2020-09-06
journal: Eur J Cancer
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2020.09.003
sha: 238df737fda4d640c960653f474cb8657fe1dd4f
doc_id: 801351
cord_uid: htmi9fqu

nan

cancer patients [1] [2] . 23

The authors arouse questions regarding the methodology of our risk model's development, due to 24 the lack of some essential premises (e.g. study design, statistical performance) in the "Milano-25

Policlinico ONCOVID Score" [1] . Similarly, the authors underline that the selection of candidate 26 predictors in the model should have started from prospective or retrospective data sets, with 27 subsequent validation of the performance of the model itself. These observations are reasonable, 28 and should ideally be respected to warrant adequate methodology of risk assessment. However, 29 COVID-19-related emergency situation has substantially modified several issues in oncology 30 practice, and clinical research has been no exception to this phenomenon. At the time of our 31 score conceptualization, only few data from small case series of cancer patients with COVID-19 32 were available. This accounts for the forthcoming validation of the score, which has not been 33 possible until recent times. This rapidly evolving situation has hindered homogeneous 34 prospective data collection. Conversely, it has stimulated researchers to expose relevant findings 35 as soon as they became available, either as a result of literature research or of individual 36 experiences. This was precisely the nature and the aim of our score. 37

The authors state that a clear definition of the outcome is missing in our work. The aim of our 38 score is to estimate the risk of oncology patients for severe adverse events or death in case of 39 COVID-19, but also in case of cancer treatment delays (including disease progression, or tumor 40 

Comment on: Developing a risk assessment score for 83 patients with cancer during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Developing a risk assessment score for patients with 86 cancer during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Patients With Cancer at 89 a Tertiary Care Hospital in Wuhan, China

Clinical characteristics of COVID-19-infected cancer patients: 92 A retrospective case study in three hospitals within Wuhan, China

Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease

Clinical portrait of the SARS-CoV-2 97 epidemic in European cancer patients