Page 52 - Read Online

Kratzke. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2021;7:50 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2021.146
Metastasis and Treatment

Editorial Open Access

Covid19 and cancer care: the end of the beginning

Robert Kratzke
Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Correspondence to: Prof. Robert Kratzke, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 480, 420
Delaware St, SE Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. E-mail: kratz003@umn.edu

How to cite this article: Kratzke R. Covid19 and cancer care: the end of the beginning. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2021;7:50.
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2021.146

Received: 8 Jul 2021 Accepted: 13 Jul 2021 First online: 14 Jul 2021

Academic Editor: Lucio Miele Copy Editor: Xi-Jun Chen Production Editor: Xi-Jun Chen

The spread of COVID19 across the globe has caused unspeakable grief and suffering for millions. It has also
impacted the care and outcomes for our cancer patients. As of July 2021, nearly 4 million deaths worldwide
have been attributed to Covid19. Thankfully, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University
[1]
Coronavirus Resource Center website , almost 4 million doses of vaccine have also been administered
worldwide. There have been numerous challenges for those who take care of cancer patients over the last 18
months related to Covid19. These range from patients delaying visits for critical cancer care to disruptions
of supply chains resulting in the absence of crucial medicines.

Going forward, difficulties will remain as disparities in vaccine supplies continue to impact communities
around the world. In addition, chronic symptoms of dyspnea and fatigue plague many survivors of Covid19.
These “long haulers” will face continued challenges as they battle existing and future cancer diagnoses .
[2]
Those of us who practice cancer medicine may expect to see more survivors of Covid19 with compromised
lung function and chronically poor performance status in the coming years. Also, without a doubt, Covid19
will continue to exist as potential comorbidity for our patients in the future. New diagnoses and outbreaks
can be expected to arise as variants develop that may prove more virulent or even resistant to our current
vaccines. How oncology practices deal with these ongoing issues will be a defining moment for the current
generation of cancer caregivers worldwide.

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

www.jcmtjournal.com