Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on imaging in oncological trials

Abstract

Disclaimer The funding sources had no active role in collection of the data, writing and final approval of the manuscript. Conflict of interest Christophe M. Deroose reports fees for consulting or advisory roles with Ipsen, Novartis, Terumo and Advanced Accelerator Applications; participation in speakers' bureaus with Terumo and Advanced Accelerator Applications and travel, accommodations or expenses with General Electric and Terumo. Caroline Caramella reports honoraria from Pfizer, BMS, MSD, Astra-Zeneca and Roche. Laure Fournier reports research support from Philips, ArianaPharma, Evolucare and Invectys; honoraria or consulting fees from Novartis, Janssen and Sanofi and speaker fees from Novartis, Bayer, Janssen, Sanofi, Pfizer and GE Healthcare. Marion Smits reports honoraria paid to the institution for trial review by Parexel Ltd. and for lecturing by GE Healthcare.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality of life and emotional wellbeing in patients with bone metastases treated with radiotherapy: a prospective cohort study

“…[1] The lockdown influenced many aspects of oncology care. [2][3][4][5][6][7] To accommodate the increasing pressure on the health care system in The Netherlands, elective health care was postponed as much as possible. This included postponement of most oncologic care to minimize infection risk, as cancer patients are considered a high-risk patient population that would suffer severe complications when infected with SARS-CoV-2.…”

Detection and Characterization of Musculoskeletal Cancer Using Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging

“…As recently reiterated by the COVID-19 crisis 54 and Brexit in 2020, and other global challenges restricting patient access to radiopharmaceuticals and radionucleotides, ongoing adaptations to patient pathways to offer safer pathways, dedicated to such vulnerable oncology patients within imaging units and hospitals, require minimization of potential exposure to pathogens through grouped and succinct clinical, laboratory, and imaging visits. WB-MRI can offer a robust, sensitive, and specific imaging modality to a large cohort of patients that has been proven to be reliable, cost effective, and well tolerated.…”

“…A major advantage of WB-MRI is its local availability, eliminating the need to travel to specialist centers, with shorter visiting times to outpatient imaging facilities. 54 The robust disease detection, with the ability to increase pathway efficiencies, was recently shown for patients with suspected colon and lung cancers. [55][56][57] This has resulted in recommendations for the use of WB-MRI within international guidelines for specific tumors (e.g., myeloma and Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and neurofibromatosis).…”

Impact of COVID-19 on Clinical Care and Research in Cancer Imaging: Where We Are Now

“…Institutions markedly reduced or even suspended research activities except for those directly related to COVID-19, shifting researchers to remote work. Restrictions interrupted ongoing experiments in the lab, and suspended clinical studies suffered unrecoverable losses of data from longitudinal cancer imaging studies analyzing disease progression and response to therapy ( 2 ). In addition, Spring of 2020 initiated a still ongoing cancellation of in-person scientific meetings with researchers, clinicians, and meeting organizers forced to adopt virtual formats.…”