publication date: Mar. 9, 2020

Coronavirus vs. Oncology

The Cancer Letter will continue to explore how coronavirus is impacting the field of oncology. Much of this coverage will be open access.

Letter from editor & publisher Paul Goldberg: We are in this together.

Further updates will be posted here as the story develops, as well as on The Cancer Letter’s Twitter account. Join our mailing list to be notified when we post a new story.

Additional resources:

Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
Coronavirus in the US and Canada — real time updates from 1Point3Acres
CDC travel advisories
List of oncology FAQs & Guidances
Meeting cancellations, postponements, changes

COVERAGE:

September 25:

July 24:

July 17:

COVID-19 and cancer: AACR convenes a meeting to explore a research agenda
Lucio Gordan: Patients must have the option of telehealth to avoid COVID-19 exposure
Conversation with Lucio Gordan
Giuseppe Curigliano: The COVID-19 curve in the U.S. will never decrease, like in Italy
Conversation with Giuseppe Curigliano

July 10:

$5.275 billion for NIH is a healthy chunk of change—but read the fine print
Ruben Mesa: Facing a dramatic COVID-19 spike in San Antonio
Conversation with Ruben Mesa
COVID-19 Updates for July 10
Yale researchers identify COVID-19 blood clotting cause

July 2:

Northwell Health reopens cancer services after COVID-19 deluge
Conversation with Richard Barakat
(Social + geographic) distance = Ongoing challenges in disparities for rural cancer patients
Guest editorial by Jennifer Dill, Marsha Kutter and Peggy Wisher

June 26:

June 19:

Sharpless: COVID-19 expected to increase mortality by at least 10,000 deaths from breast and colorectal cancers over 10 years
ACS faces precipitous drop in fundraising
Uncertainty surrounds fall round of grants
Conquest of COVID-19: Publish it to death?
Guest Editorial by Robert Peter Gale
COVID-19 Updates for June 19
FDA joins Reagan-Udall, Friends of Cancer Research to form COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator; Research!America seeks $26 billion boost to NIH, CDC, FDA funding in FY21; Algorithm helps select breast cancer patients for urgent surgery or chemotherapy during pandemic; FDA issues warning letters to companies marketing antibody tests; TERAVOLT registry tracks outcomes of treatments among thoracic cancer patients with COVID-19; and more

June 12:

Working to end cancer in the time of COVID-19
Guest editorial by Peter Pisters
#WhiteCoats4BlackLives aims to lead to real change in oncology
BTK inhibitors improve COVID-19 outcomes by targeting upstream switch for inflammation, early data suggest
Conversation with Wyndham Wilson and Louis Staudt
Fajgenbaum gained insight into COVID-19 while seeking treatment for Castleman disease (which he has)
Impact of COVID-19 on Georgia’s community providers: a snapshot from Georgia NCORP
Guest editorial by Guilherme Cantuari
As screening declines amid COVID-19, at-home stool DNA test for CRC gets high adherence in Medicare population
Guest editorial by Paul Limburg
COVID-19 Updates for June 12
Guidance helps select breast cancer patients for urgent surgery or chemotherapy during pandemic; ChristianaCare develops COVID-19 symptom monitoring, testing program for businesses and employers; HealthTree recruits over 1,000 participants for study on impact of COVID-19 on MM

May 29:

Ramon Parsons: How Mount Sinai did good science amid the COVID-19 deluge
Conversation with Ramon Parsons
CCC19 data point to extensive use of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, or both, by patients with cancer and COVID-19
Guest editorial by Otis Brawley
Radiation oncology appointments plummeted in the COVID-19 pandemic—but seem to be rising again
John Cleveland: How Moffitt will heal from conflict of interest trauma—and from COVID-19
Conversation with John Cleveland
COVID-19 Updates for May 29
Study: Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t improve survival in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but tocilizumab does; Genentech begins phase III trial of tocilizumab + remdesivir in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia; UMich develops app that calculates risk of delaying cancer care during COVID-19; ACS CAN survey: cancer patients increasingly face COVID-19 health impact

May 22:

Let’s not form blue ribbon panels to study disparities in COVID-19 deaths. Instead, let’s find the will to act
Guest editorial by Robert Winn and Katherine Tossas
CCC19 bridging the knowledge gap for patients with COVID-19 and cancer
Guest editorial by Rana McKay, Toni Choueiri, Brian Rini and Jeremy Warner
Funerals, church choirs, poultry plants fuel COVID-19 in rural Georgia—threatening Atlanta with a second spike
Erin Kobetz: How Sylvester’s cancer outreach is used to monitor COVID-19 in Miami-Dade
Conversation with Erin Kobetz
A telesitevisit: Cancer center site visits go virtual amid COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 Updates for May 22
UCLA tests prostate cancer drug for COVID-19 in men

May 15:

Nancy Davidson describes plans for reopening the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance as COVID-19 wave recedes
Conversation with Nancy Davidson
With $306M for serology research, NCI mobilizes labs, academic centers, grantees, contractors, and SBIR
Sharpless: COVID-19 threatens to reverse long-running trend of decreasing cancer mortality
NCI Report by Ned Sharpless
SARS-CoV-2 and oncology drugs. What do we mean when we talk about value?
Guest editorial by Garth Strohbehn, Daniel Goldstein and Mark Ratain
COVID-19 Updates for May 15
Heartland NCORP sites implement drive-through laboratory service; Roswell Park to assess immunotherapy combination in cancer patients with COVID-19; MSK Kids study: Children with cancer are not at a higher risk for COVID-19 infection or morbidity; GRYT Health and BMS launch COVID-19 Advocacy Exchange

May 8:

COVID-19 and community cancer care: A panorama of a catastrophe
Guest editorial by Debra Patt and Michael Kolodziej
NCI receives $306 million in new money for COVID-19 serology test research;
Details to follow at BSA meeting May 12
Fox Chase will not be sold to Jefferson after all
Deal becomes a “casualty of COVID-19”
COVID-19 slams into the nation’s capital region;
Here is the damage assessment at six institutions
Lessons from COVID-19: Leaders of six cancer centers in the DMV area tell us about caseloads, the outlook—and impact
Conversation with William G. Nelson, Mitchell R. Smith, Louis M. Weiner, Robert A. Winn, Michael E. Williams and John F. Deeken
Embracing the increasing value of eHealth in patient-centered cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond
Guest editorial by Frank J. Penedo and Joshua Kronenfeld
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the cancer clinical trials—they are a-changing
Guest editorial by Gregory Masters, Nicholas Petrelli and Kandie Dempsey
COVID-19 Updates for May 8
Democratic senators call for $26B in next COVID-19 relief package to support research workforce; House members call for equal access to affordable oral chemotherapy prescription drugs amidst COVID-19 outbreak

May 1:

COVID-19 vs. community oncology: Flatiron’s data provides first damage assessment
Conversation with Bobby Green
NSCLC patients getting checkpoint inhibitors more likely to develop pneumonitis, Syapse-FDA-Aurora study finds
Conversation with Thomas D. Brown and Jonathan Hirsch
Skip Burris: These few months are going to shape health care in the coming years
Conversation with Howard A. “Skip” Burris III
AACR data from China and Europe amount to “two different messages” for cancer patients with COVID-19
Are COVID-19 patients with cancer at a greater risk of dying than non-cancer patients? Depends on whom you ask.
With 61,000 people registered, first-ever virtual AACR annual meeting “an unexpected success”
Conversation with Antoni Ribas
Remdesivir established as standard of care for COVID-19, Fauci declares
FDA issues Emergency Use Authorization
Under the onslaughts of COVID-19, Montefiore deployed a PPE strategy for patients—PREVENT/PROTECT/ENABLE
Guest editorial by Balazs Halmos, Roman Perez-Soler, Stuart Packer, Mary G. LaRocca, Bruce Rapkin, Shalom Kalnicki and Joseph Sparano
The pandemic of COVID-19 and its effect on clinical trials in the community
Guest editorial by James N. Atkins
Cancer doesn’t wait—we are treating cancer patients now
Guest editorial by Richard Bold and Timothy Donahue
Covid-19 Updates for May 1
FDA grants Emergency Use Authorization for novel, non-implanted device to wean patients off mechanical ventilation; TGen seeks volunteers for COVID-19 immunity study; J&J and Emergent Bio collaborate on coronavirus vaccine candidate

April 24:

Remdesivir, IL inhibitors emerge as frontrunners in race to treat COVID-19
Phase III results for remdesivir expected within weeks
Berry: “Designing clinical trials doesn’t have high priority when there’s no pandemic. And then, when there’s a pandemic, there’s panic”
Conversation with Donald A. Berry
When disparities widen: COVID-19 in minority patients with cancer
Guest editorial by Coral Olazagasti and Narjust Duma
COVID-Lung Cancer Consortium: An example how the lung cancer community came together in challenging time
Guest editorial by Fred R. Hirsch, Paul A. Bunn Jr and John D. Minna
Feist-Weiller mammography vans repurposed to screen for COVID-19 in northwest Louisiana
Conversation with Andrew D. Yurochko
Tulane Cancer Center chips away at the “digital divide” that keeps the underserved from benefiting from telemedicine
Conversation with A. Oliver Sartor
COVID-19 Updates for April 24
FDA issues advisory on off-label use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine; AACI CRI meeting goes virtual; Reagan-Udall Foundation and Friends of Cancer Research form COVID-19 Evidence Accelerator focused on RWE

April 22:

As COVID-19 peaks in San Antonio, Ruben Mesa predicts gradual reopening
Conversation with Ruben A. Mesa

April 17:

Lowy: “Our patients are counting on us, and we must not let them down”
NCI Frederick Lab takes aim at COVID-19
Doroshow: NCI to accrue patients for COVID-19 longitudinal cohort
Ongoing trials see significant decrease in accrual
Sharpless: NCI is fully operational, we have a moral obligation to help in the COVID-19 pandemic response
NCI Director’s report
As treatments get cancelled because of COVID-19, patients worry about adequacy of care
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, oncologists are either limiting or canceling adjuvant care, in effect staging a population-level experiment.
American Cancer Society announces a wave of furloughs and layoffs as COVID-19 constricts fundraising
Amid COVID-19 pandemic, cancer community responds to fill data gap
Guest editorial by Richard L. Schilsky
Cancer care continues during COVID-19 pandemic—with new tools and old challenges
Guest editorial by Ted Okon
Lichtenfeld: COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in the U.S. health care system
Conversation with J. Leonard Lichtenfeld
COVID-19 Updates for April 17
AstraZeneca trial to test Calquence in COVID-19 patients; Clinical trial accruals at OneOncology increase in the face of COVID-19; American Cancer Society opens COVID-19 tracking study; and more.

April 10:

NCTN group chairs: Cancer trials take backseat to clinical care amid COVID-19 pandemic
Guest editorial by NCTN group chairs
Chernobyl doctor’s view of COVID-19: Trump threatens 267 years of progress in biomedical research
Guest editorial by Robert Peter Gale
NCI to distribute IL-6 inhibitor for cancer patients with COVID-19 lung inflammation
NCI is finalizing plans to use its clinical trials networks to administer a compassionate use protocol for distribution of tocilizumab
A view from the plateau: As Italy’s cases drop, oncologists plan post-COVID-19 agenda
In Italy, the number of people dying from COVID-19 has dropped to about 500 per day,Giuseppe Curigliano said to The Cancer Letter.
COVID-19 Updates for April 10
ASCO publishes guidance on allocation of limited resources; AACR to split virtual annual meeting into two parts; and more.

April 9:

COVID-19 lesson from Spain: Like the U.S., we failed to take this seriously before it came to us—we have to learn
Conversation with Josep Tabernero, Director, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology

April 6:

Libutti: Rutgers studies COVID-19 while bracing for its surge
Conversation with Steven K. Libutti, Director, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

April 3:

Friending viral foes: The Zika story and (perhaps) lessons for COVID-19
Guest editorial by Scott M. Lippman
What cancer immunologists are doing about COVID-19
Guest editorial by Rachel Humphrey
A COVID-19 update from New York: “The only thing I hear at night now is the wail of ambulances”
Conversation with Benjamin Neel
As Italy’s COVID-19 incidence curve flattens, Curigliano sees lessons for the U.S.
Social isolation and containment have begun to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases in Italy, Giuseppe Curigliano said to The Cancer Letter.
COVID-19 Updates for April 3
AACR to Congress: Act on PPE, ventilator and testing shortages; Advocacy organizations: Stop threatening health care workers who speak out about lack of PPE; and more.
COVID-19 and cancer: Ethical dilemmas in immune checkpoint blockade
Guest editorial by Allison Betof Warner

March 27:

Hollander: Fix telehealth infrastructure—or America will be just as unprepared for the next pandemic
Conversation with Judd Hollander, Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Knudsen, Flomenberg: Eliminate digital health disparities; we don’t want telemedicine to be for the one-percenters
Conversation with Karen Knudsen and Neal Flomenberg
Curigliano: Italy’s COVID-19 cases keep rising; maybe next week the curve will flatten
6,205 health professionals have tested positive and 44 have died
COVID-19 Updates for March 27
ASCO annual meeting goes virtual, Congress passes coronavirus relief bill, and more
Against all odds: Unrelated stem cell transplants in coronavirus times
Guest editorial by Steven Devine and Alexander Schmidt

March 24:

Class of drugs used to treat CAR T-cell toxicity may reduce COVID-19 deaths
Two randomized trials announced.

March 20:

The COVID-19 pandemic gives us the urgency—and one more chance—to address health disparities
Guest editorial by Robert Winn, Director, VCU Massey Cancer Center
COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium
Letter to the editor: “If you have knowledge of a cancer patient who has been affected by COVID-19, we ask you to complete a short REDCap survey”
Sifting through fatality data and projections on COVID-19: People with cancer, other comorbidities face highest risk
Early data from China and Italy confirm that cancer patients are at higher risk for developing severe adverse events and dying after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
One cancer patient’s struggle to get a COVID-19 test
The predicament in which Janice Cowden finds herself is so ordinary in today’s pandemic-struck America that it’s repeated thousands of times—and therein lies its horror.
Curigliano: “I don’t want to see more people dying”
As COVID-19 deaths rise in Italy, oncologists hope to see the curve flatten. The Cancer Letter followed up with Italian oncologist Guiseppe Curigliano
What community cancer centers need to know about COVID-19
Guest editorial by OneOncology’s Jeff Patton & Lee Schwartzberg

March 18:

ASCO’s response to COVID-19
Guest editorial by Richard L. Schilsky, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, American Society of Clinical Oncology

March 16:

Nelson: How Hopkins is managing COVID-19 pandemic
A conversation with William G. Nelson, Director of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins

March 13:

COVID-19 and the cancer patient: A call to action for balancing cancer care and viral risk
Guest editorial by Karen E. Knudsen and Roy Jensen
Pandemic: Bracing for coronavirus surge
The COVID-19 pandemic will affect every aspect of cancer care and cancer research.
Is your cancer center ready for COVID-19?
The Cancer Letter spoke with leaders from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, and Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University to gauge the impact of coronavirus.
A conversation about COVID-19: reflecting on first cases in Kansas
A transcript from a Facebook Live program, where Roy Jensen, director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center and Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute, interviewed Dana Hawkinson and Joseph McGuirk about COVID-19 and oncology.

March 11:

What to expect: Oncology’s response to coronavirus in Italy
A conversation with Italian oncologist Guiseppe Curigliano. “It’s like being in a war.”

March 6:

Coronavirus vs. oncology: Meeting cancellations, travel restrictions, fears about drug supply chain
Forecasts of the inevitable spread of coronavirus can be difficult to ignore, especially at a time when many of us are making travel plans for this spring’s big cancer meetings.

FAQs & Guidances:

Note: This list is current as of April 24

Federal government:

NIH COVID-19 treatment guidelines
NCI source book and resources: clinical and laboratory operations
NCI Emergency Resources: What people with cancer should know about the coronavirus
NCI guidance: Interim guidance for patients on clinical trials supported by the NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) and the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP).
CTEP coronavirus guidance
COVID-19 scientific interest group
FDA guidance: Conduct of clinical trials of medical products during COVID-19 pandemic
FDA guidance update: Blood donations
- More FDA updates: Medical Countermeasures Initiative, on COVID-19
- FDA continues to facilitate access to crucial medical products, Including ventilators
- FDA provides update on patient access to certain REMS drugs during COVID-19 public health emergency
- A message to patients with cancer and Health Care Providers About COVID-19
- Update: Diagnostic testing for COVID-19
- Resources for patients and caregivers
- FDA enforcement policy for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and cardiopulmonary bypass devices
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services FAQ: Interim final rule

Professional societies:

American Society of Clinical Oncology FAQ: Emerging issues and challenges in caring for patients with cancer during the coronavirus pandemic
- ASCO recommendations for the oncology community
- ASCO COVID-19 in oncology registry
- ASCO/National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship FAQ
American Association for Cancer Research FAQ: Information on virtual annual meetings
American Cancer Society FAQ: Common questions about the new coronavirus outbreak
- ACS clinical guidance: COVID-19 elective case triage guidelines for surgical care
- Create a surgical review committee for COVID-19-related surgical triage decision making
- COVID-19 and 2020 ACS Grants
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship webinar with Otis Brawley
- NCCS resources for survivors
Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Resources: Patient management and basic and translational research
Community Oncology Alliance resources: Coronavirus (COVID-19) practice resources and protocols
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society FAQ: Resources and what you should know about the coronavirus
American Society for Radiation Oncology FAQ: COVID-19 recommendations and information
Joint recommendations for treatment of patients with breast cancer
American College of Surgeons resources: For the surgical community
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation resources
Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer resources: Implications for patients, translational research
GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer resources
Adolescent and young adult resources
American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy resources
European Blood and Marrow Transplantation Society recommendations
World Marrow Donor Association resources
National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation resources

Research centers:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital FAQ: COVID-19 and children with cancer

Journals:

Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network: How to manage cancer care during COVID-19 pandemic
- NCCN best practices
- Special Feature: How to keep cancer patients and healthcare workers safe

Companies:

Advarra: Coronavirus guidance
Asbestos.com: Coronavirus guidance

MEETING DISRUPTIONS:

Meeting cancellations, postponements, changes: An up-to-date list of oncology conferences

Note: This list is current as of March 19, 1:12 P.M. EST. Meetings are listed chronologically.

Postponed: Flatiron Health postponed its March 10-12 research summit in Washington, D.C.
Canceled: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, March 9-13, Orlando, FL. President Donald Trump was slated to speak at the meeting.
Virtual only: ENETS Conference for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Neuroendocrine Tumor Disease, March 11-13.
Postponed: European Association of Radiology, March 11-15, Vienna. Rescheduled to July 15-19, Vienna.
Canceled: AACR-Prostate Cancer Advances, March 12-15, Denver, CO.
Canceled: Society of Toxicology annual meeting, March 15-19, Anaheim, CA. Virtual webinars available March 16-19.
Canceled: National Association of Community Health Centers, March 16-19, Washington, DC.
Canceled: Children’s Oncology Group Spring Meeting, March 17-20, Chicago, IL.
Postponed: European Breast Cancer Conference, March 18-20, Barcelona, Spain. Postponed to September 30–October 2.
Canceled: St. Gallen International Gastrointestinal Cancer Conference, March 19-21, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Postponed: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network, March 19-22, Orlando, FL. In lieu of an annual conference, NCCN is considering supplementing the annual conference with webinars and future in-person educational sessions and meetings. No new date yet.
Postponed: European Association of Urology, March 20-24, Amsterdam. Postponed to July 2020.
Postponed: 1st Translational Research Conference: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia, March 20-22, Paris, France. Postponed to November 17-19, 2020.
Virtual only: American Society of Preventive Oncology annual meeting March 22-24 in Tucson, AZ.
Canceled: AMIA Informatics Summit, March 23-26, Houston, TX.
Canceled: The International Papillomavirus Conference in Barcelona March 23-27.
Postponed: The First International Summit on Interventional Pharmacoeconomics, March 25-27, Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel has since prohibited international conferences. Postponed TBA.
Postponed: The Society of Surgical Oncology meeting, March 25-28 in Boston, MA. Postponed to August 17-20, 2020.
Postponed: Journées Francophones d’Hépato-gastroentérologie et d’Oncologie Digestive March 26-29, Paris. Postponed to June 25-28.
Canceled: Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America March 26-30, Atlanta, GA.
Canceled: Society of Gynecologic Oncology 2020 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer March 28-31, Toronto, Ontario.
Canceled: Society of Interventional Radiology, March 28-April 2, Seattle, WA.
Postponed: Cancer and Primary Care (CaPRI) research network, April 1-3, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Virtual only: Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation annual conference, April 1-3, Salt Lake City, UT.
Postponed: Summit on National and Global Cancer Health Disparity, April 3-4, Seattle, WA. Postponed until Fall 2020.
Canceled: ELCC 2020 Congress, April 15-18, Geneva, Switzerland.
Canceled: Roche Tissue Diagnostics Tucson Symposium, April 21-22, Tucson, AZ.
Canceled: SWOG spring meeting, April 22-25, San Francisco.
Virtual only: Community Oncology Conference, April 23-24, Orlando, FL.
Canceled: American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting, April 23-25, Los Angeles, CA.
Postponed: AACR Annual Meeting, April 24-29 in San Diego, CA. “A rescheduled meeting is being planned for later this year.” (AACR statement)
Virtual only: ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group’s Spring 2020 Group Meeting, April 29 – May 1 in Baltimore, MD.
Canceled: Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Congress, April 29-May 3, San Antonio, TX.
Postponed: MD Anderson Multidisciplinary Therapy of Pancreas Cancer symposium, May 8-9 in Houston, TX. A new date will be announced.

Did we miss something? Notify alex@cancerletter.com or contact us via Twitter with your meeting disruptions.