While providers are challenged with treatment decisions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, decision making ultimately falls in the hands of patients-at present, their perspective is poorly understood.
To ascertain renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients' perspectives on COVID-19 and understand the associated implications for treatment.
An online survey of RCC patients was conducted from March 22 to March 25, 2020, disseminated through social media and patient networking platforms. The survey comprised 45 items, including baseline demographic, clinicopathologic, and treatment-related information. Patients were additionally queried regarding their anxiety level related to COVID-19 and associated implications for their cancer diagnosis.
An online survey study.
Descriptive statistics with graphical outputs were used to characterize survey results.
A total of 539 patients (male:female 39%:58%) from 14 countries responded. Of them, 71% felt that their risk of COVID-19 infection was higher than the general population, and 27% contacted their physician to establish this. Among patients with localized disease (40%), most (42%) had scheduled surveillance scans within 6 wk-65% were unwilling to delay scans. Among patients with metastatic disease, 76% were receiving active therapy. While most patients preferred not to defer therapy (51%), patients receiving immune therapy regimens were less amenable to deferring therapy than those receiving targeted treatment (20% vs 47%).
Despite high levels of anxiety surrounding COVID-19, many patients with RCC were inclined to adhere to existing schedules of surveillance (localized disease) and systemic treatment (metastatic disease).
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted many doctors to develop different treatment strategies for cancer and other chronic conditions. Given the importance of the patient voice in these strategies, we conducted a survey of patients with kidney cancer to determine their treatment preferences. Our survey highlighted that most patients prefer to continue their current strategies of kidney cancer treatment and monitoring.
European urology focus. 2020 Sep 11 [Epub ahead of print]
Michael Staehler, Dena Battle, Sumanta Kumar Pal, Cristiane Decat Bergerot
Department of Urology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany., Kidney Cancer Research Alliance (KCCure), Alexandria, VA, USA., Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, USA., Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, USA. Electronic address: .
PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32943372