Introduction
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created unprecedented challenges on the healthcare system. The aim of this multi-centre study was to measure the impact of COVID-19 on IR services in the UK.
Material and Methods
Retrospective cross-sectional study of IR practice in six UK centres during the COVID-19 pandemic was carried out. All therapeutic IR procedures were identified using the respective hospital radiology information systems and COVID-19 status found on the hospital patient record systems. The total number of therapeutic IR procedures was recorded over two time periods, 25/03/2019–21/04/2019 (control group) and 30/03/2020–26/04/2020 (COVID-19 group). The data points collected were: procedure type, aerosol-generating nature, acute or elective case, modality used, in- or out-of-hours case and whether the procedure was done at the bedside (portable).
Results
A 31% decrease in overall number of IR procedures was observed during COVID-19 compared to the control group (1363 cases vs 942 cases); however, the acute work decreased by only 0.5%. An increase in out-of-hours work by 10% was observed. COVID-19 was suspected or laboratory proved in 9.9% of cases (n = 93), and 15% of total cases (n = 141) were classed as aerosol-generating procedures. A 66% rise in cholecystostomy was noted during COVID-19. Image-guided ablation, IVC filters, aortic stent grafting and visceral vascular stenting had the greatest % decreases in practice during COVID-19, with 91.7%, 83.3%, 80.8% and 80.2% decreases, respectively.
Conclusion
During the global pandemic, IR has continued to provide emergency and elective treatment highlighting the adaptability of IR in supporting other specialties.
The annual global incidence of cervical cancer is approximately 604 000 cases/342 000 deaths, making it the fourth most common cancer in women. Cervical cancer is a major healthcare problem in low and middle income countries where 85% of new cases and deaths occur. Secondary prevention measures have reduced incidence and mortality in developed countries over the past 30 years, but cervical cancer remains a major cause of cancer deaths in women. For women who present with Fédération Internationale de Gynécologie et d’Obstétrique (FIGO 2018) stages IB3 or upwards, chemoradiation is the established treatment. Despite high rates of local control, overall survival is less than 50%, largely due to distant relapse. Reducing the health burden of cervical cancer requires greater individualization of treatment, identifying those at risk of relapse and progression for modified or intensified treatment. Hypoxia is a well known feature of solid tumors and an established therapeutic target. Low tumorous oxygenation increases the risk of local invasion, metastasis and treatment failure. While meta-analyses show benefit, many individual trials targeting hypoxia failed in part due to not selecting patients most likely to benefit. This review summarizes the available hypoxia-targeted strategies and identifies further research and new treatment paradigms needed to improve patient outcomes. The applications and limitations of hypoxia biomarkers for treatment selection and response monitoring are discussed. Finally, areas of greatest unmet clinical need are identified to measure and target hypoxia and therefore improve cervical cancer outcomes.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Tumour hypoxia is associated with poor treatment outcome, tumour progression and treatment resistance. Oxygen-enhanced (OE)-MRI has shown promise as a non-invasive method for mapping and quantifying hypoxia. We demonstrate, for the first time, the application of the OE-MRI technique in patients with head and neck carcinoma to monitor changes in hypoxia due to treatment, and translate the technique onto an MR Linac system, demonstrating feasibility in a first-in-human study.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.