The NK cell targeting strategy has not yet been approved for lung cancer treatment. More clinical studies focusing on the role of NK cells in lung cancer pathogenesis are warranted to develop novel NK cell-based therapeutic approaches for the treatment of lung cancer.
<b><i>Background:</i></b> International guidelines in asthma and allergy has been updated for COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic has caused dramatic changes in allergy and immunology services. However, it is not known whether specialty-specific recommendations for COVID-19 are followed by allergists. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> By conducting this study, we aimed to determine the attitudes and experiences of adult/pediatric allergists on allergy management during COVID-19. <b><i>Method:</i></b> We used a 20-question survey to elicit data from allergists (residents and pediatric and adult allergists registered to the Turkish National Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology) across Turkey via e-mail. We analyzed the data statistically for frequency distributions and descriptive analysis. <b><i>Results:</i></b> A total of 183 allergists participated in the survey. Telemedicine was used for management of asthma (73%), allergic rhinitis (53%), atopic dermatitis (51%), chronic urticaria/angioedema (59%), drug hypersensitivity (45%), food allergy (48%), venom allergy (30%), anaphylaxis (22%), and hereditary angioedema (28%). Thirty-one percent of the respondents discontinued subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-four percent of the physicians reported interruption of systemic steroid use in asthma patients, and 25% of the respondents discontinued biological therapy. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Allergists in Turkey have been using telemedicine at a high rate during the COVID-19 pandemic for asthma and rhinitis. The continuation rate of SCIT was low while the discontinuation rate of biologicals and systemic steroid use in asthma was high in Turkey.<b><i></i></b>Our study results and learning from the experiences of other countries and specialties may help to optimize allergy practice and compatibility with international guidelines.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Çağlayan performed the patient recruitment and clinical follow-up. All collaborators contributed to the clinical management of the COVID-19 patients. Y. Peker, Y. Celik and A. Baygül performed the statistical analysis. Y. Peker prepared the manuscript, and drafted the article. All authors interpreted the data. Y. Peker takes full responsibility for the work as a whole, including the study design, access to data, and the decision to submit and publish the manuscript. All authors approved this manuscript in its final form. Data Sharing: Data collected for the study, including de-identified individual participant data will be made available to others within 6 months after the publication of this article, as will additional related documents (study protocol, statistical analysis plan, and informed consent form), for academic purposes (e.g., meta-analyses), upon request to the corresponding author
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