Dear Editor, the publication on “How should we implement radiotherapy for cancer patients in China during the endemic period of COVID-19?” is very interesting. Wei et al. noted that “It is important that oncologists discern whether their patients are at risk of COVID-19 exposure, but it is more challenging to balance the relationship between treating tumors and preventing viruses. [1].” We would like to share ideas and experiences on radiotherapy and COVID-19 issue. We agree that radiotherapy might have some health effects in patients with COVID-19. In our country, Thailand, the second country chronological order of COVID-19 pandemic [2], there are 2369 COVID-19 cases at present (8th March 2020). Of those cases, there is only 1 patient who had radiotherapy. This female patient got standard antiviral therapy and isolated respiratory care and got full recovery. We agree that it is necessary to consider benefit versus risk in using radiotherapy in the COVID-19 crisis. Nevertheless, we should not fear to use radiotherapy when there is indication.
Conflict of interest
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Footnotes
The Editors of the Journal, the Publisher and the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) cannot take responsibility for the statements or opinions expressed by the authors of these articles. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds or experiments described herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made. For more information see the editorial “Radiotherapy & Oncology during the COVID-19 pandemic”, Vol. 146, 2020.
References
- 1.Wei W., Jiang H., Chen W., Zhou Y., Guo S., Zhong G. How should we implement radiotherapy for cancer patients in China during the endemic period of COVID-19? Radiother Oncol. 2020;147:100–102. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2020.03.016. [Epub ahead of print] [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Yasri S., Wiwanitkit V. Editorial: Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and imported case. Adv Trop Med Public Health Int. 2020;10:1–2. [Google Scholar]