Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with cancer and cancer survivors
Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava
Abstract
The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the healthcare system. Patients with cancer have been severely affected by the pandemic and have not been able to utilize the required healthcare services in a timely manner. This review is aimed at assessing the clinical and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with cancer and cancer survivors. A comprehensive literature search was performed for this review in the PubMed database and Google Scholar database using the keywords, “COVID-19,” “cancer,” and “impact” in the title. Of a total of 30 relevant studies, 27 articles were included in the review. In addition, the World Health Organization website was extensively searched for relevant information. For patients with cancer who are affected by COVID-19, it has been advocated that post recovery from COVID-19, the therapeutic management of cancer should resume at the earliest to minimize cancer-related mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions in the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and management of cancer. Therefore, minimizing the effect of the COVID-19 infection and improving the healthcare services offered to the patients with cancer by strengthening the healthcare system is the need of the hour.