On March 11th 2020, the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the WHO. One of the groups that is considered high risk in this pandemic are cancer patients as they are treated with a variety of immune system suppressor treatment modalities and this puts them in a great risk for infectious disease (including COVID-19). Therefore, cancer patients require higher level measures for preventing and treating infectious diseases. furthermore, cancer patients may bear additional risk due to the restriction of access to the routine diagnostic and therapeutic services during such epidemic. Since most of the attention of health systems is towards patients affected with COVID-19, the need for structured and unified approaches to COVID-19 prevention and care specific to cancer patients and cancer centers is felt more than ever. This article provides the recommendations and possible actions that should be considered by patients, their caregivers and families, physician, nurses, managers and staff of medical centers involved in cancer diagnosis and treatment. We pursued two major goals in our recommendations: first, limiting the exposure of cancer patients to medical environments and second, modifying the treatment modalities in a manner that reduces the probability of myelosuppression such as delaying elective diagnostic and therapeutic services, shortening the treatment course, or prolonging the interval between treatment courses.

Cancer patients are at risk for severe complications or death from COVID-19 infection. Therefore, the need for routine COVID-19 testing in this population was evaluated. Between 1st August and 30th October 2020, 150 cancer patients were included. Symptoms of COVID-19 infection were evaluated. All eligible individuals went through RT-PCR and serological tests for COVID-19. At the same time, 920 non-cancer patients were recruited from a random sample of individuals who were subject to routine molecular and anti-body screening tests. Of 150 cancer patients, 7 (4.7%) were RT-PCR positive. Comorbidity made a significant difference in the RT-PCR positivity of cancer patients, 71.4% positive versus 25.8% negative (P-value = 0.02). The average age for negative and positive groups was 53.3 and 58.2 respectively (P-value = 0.01). No significant difference was observed between cancer and non-cancer patients regarding COVID-19 antibody tests. However, cancer patients were 3 times less likely to have a positive RT-PCR test result OR = 0.33 (CI: 0.15–0.73). The probability of cancer patients having a positive routine test was significantly lower than non-cancer patients, and the concept that all cancer patients should be routinely tested for COVID-19 may be incorrect. Nevertheless, there may be a subgroup of patients with comorbidities or older age who may benefit from routine COVID-19 testing. Importantly, these results could not be subjected to multivariate analysis.

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Due to the demographic characteristics and structure of the country's service delivery system, one of the most important non-communicable disease control programs is the National Cancer Control Program, which needs to be developed in the long term with a scientific approach and cross-sectoral cooperation and stakeholder participation. →What this article adds:• The IrNCCP has 4 main components, including Prevention, Early Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment, and Supportive and Palliative care, as well as 7 supporting components including Governance and policy-making, Cancer Research, Developing facilities, equipment, and service delivery network, Providing and managing human resources, Providing and managing financial resources, Cancer information system management and registry, and Participation of NGOs, charities, and the private sector.• Strengthening the governance structure of the IrNCCP is necessary both in terms of full implementation of this program and achieving the expected goals and health outcomes, as well as in terms of evaluating the progress of this program and its improvement.