key: cord-0859725-bcr2g5hq
authors: Gambardella, Claudio; Pagliuca, Raffaele; Pomilla, Giuseppe; Gambardella, Antonio
title: COVID-19 risk contagion: Organization and procedures in a South Italy geriatric oncology ward
date: 2020-05-22
journal: J Geriatr Oncol
DOI: 10.1016/j.jgo.2020.05.008
sha: a296762f4e2eea0e7764803cf9ef197dabef01a9
doc_id: 859725
cord_uid: bcr2g5hq

nan

experience of the seven comprehensive cancer centers of Cancer Core Europe, a cooperation legal entity that act to maximize coherence and critical mass in oncology. [2] The authors postulated that the vulnerability due to cancer treatments, the unknown effects of delays of tumor resection surgeries or chemotherapy, and the risk related to the current limited availability of intensive care units' beds could severely expose these patients to complications. The authors further highlighted the importance of patients distancing, of delaying non-urgent outpatient visits, and of rationalizing of the oncological surgeries based on urgency of cancer cure. Furthermore, they stressed the importance of deescalating cancer regimens or to integrate them with immunostimulant factors, in order to make hospital operations "pandemic proof". [2] During this unprecedented pandemic outbreak, we would put a spotlight on the group of patients that probably are the frailest and often neglected-older patients with cancer. This topic is still lacking in literature despite the great social and healthcare interest. Older patients with cancer, in fact, presented an exponential contagion risk related to the immunodeficiency state belonging from the cytotoxic chemotherapy and the weakness deriving from to the multiple and potentially lifethreatening comorbidities. Considering the large and rapid diffusion of the Sars-Cov-2 in Italy, the first western country severely affected and shaken by the virus breakout with the highest worldwide lethality rate (13.2%), in our division of Geriatric Oncology, we adopted all possible procedures capable of preventing the contagion among our frail patients. Accepting and executing all the dictates of Italian Government and of Ministry of Health, we recommended the use of disposable

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