Perception of Cancer Patients and Their Attendants during Pandemic of COVID-19: An Experience from Tertiary Care Center, Pakistan

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer patients have concerns about treatment during COVID-19 pandemic virus as well as its impact on their health. This survey was conducted to ascertain perception of cancer patients and their attendants during this pandemic. Methods & Results: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Oncology OPD of SIUT, from May 2020 to July 2020 on cancer patients along with their attendants. Among 306 patients, 68.9% received chemotherapy. In response of each question, 1st one belonged to patients and 2nd was related to attendants. Only positive answers are reported here. For increasing gap of chemotherapy during the pandemic COVID-19, 58.3% vs 38.4% agreed with doctor recommendation. For start of single agent chemotherapy instead of combination regimen, 41% vs 19% agreed. For hospitalization 41.5%, vs 47.7% depicted inclination towards admission whereas for mental health questions, 63.7% vs 51.3% were neither afraid nor had psychological issues 79.7% vs 25.8% respectively. About COVID-19 testing, 66% vs 22.5% wanted to be tested. If results turned out positive, 82.2% vs 24.7% would go in isolation. Conclusion: This study provides evidence of perception of cancer patients with their attendants from resource restrained country. Our study confirms that for disease like cancer, fear of the illness is always more paramount than any infection.