Turkish Society of Medical Oncology COVID-19 Pandemic Advisory Board Updated Recommendations for Medical Oncologists

摘要

COVID-19, which hit the world toward the end of 2019, continues to affect all aspects of people’s lives.1 More than 100 million people have been infected in the past year, while more than 2 million people have died because of COVID-19.2 For Turkey more than 31 million COVID-19 polimerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed, 2.6 million cases diagnosed and more than 27000 deaths seen at the end of 2020 Turkey has started vaccination at 14th of January 2021 and more than 4 million people vaccinated during first month and it is ongoing. 3 People have slowly and steadily learned how to prevent this virus infection through lifestyle changes like social distancing and good hygiene during the past year. Moreover, we have learned more about effective treatment approach during active infection. Importantly, new advancement has included the development of vaccines and we know that vaccination is the most potent medical tool for protecting humans against COVID-19. As Turkish Medical Oncologists, we are aware that cancer patients require continuous treatment; therefore, we actively followed-up and continued treatment uninterruptedly in the past year in the light of guidelines and recommendations of the TTOD COVID- 19 Advisory Board.4-6 As the Turkish Medical Oncology Society, we would like to update our patient management and develop recommendations for vaccinations against coronavirus, which seems to persist globally, at least for a while now.