In the midst of the heavy burden COVID-19 has placed on the health care system, cancer remains relentless. The already difficult journey for cancer patients has become more uncertain as the ways we provide and access healthcare have changed to accommodate measures that protect both health care providers and cancer patients from COVID-19.
As oncologists, we are all too familiar with making treatment recommendations and advising on end-of-life care in the absence of robust data. In ethical conundrums, we rely on guidance from our colleagues in the field, institutions, and national/international leadership bodies.
The COVID-19 crisis has consequences not only for those who have become infected and the doctors and nurses who care for them. The care of other patients is also threatened by the increasing stress that national health systems and societies as a whole are under.
As the incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic increases in U.S. communities, the needs of cancer patients, and those caring for them, are at the forefront of our attention and action.
On March 11, Jensen, who is also William R. Jewell Distinguished Kansas Masonic Professor and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, anatomy and cell biology, cancer biology and molecular biosciences, focused on COVID-19.
We were recently presented with the new report from American Cancer Society1 showing the biggest annual decrease in cancer mortality, which was mainly due to decline in smoking, as well as improvements in early detection and treatment.
Having cancer as a Latino in the United States has important implications potentially related to risk of carcinogenesis, knowledge of cancer prevention, access to cancer screening, therapy timing and choices, and access to good supportive/palliative or survivorship care.
On December 10, 2019, Dr. William G. Kaelin, Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Dr. Gregg L. Semenza officially received the title of Nobel Laureate in Medicine.
I write, again, compelled by emerging scientific facts regarding a serious systemic error of negligence on the part of the main American gynecological societies, AAGL and ACOG, and their member practitioners—though the problem I highlight here also affects overseas gynecological counterparts, specifically the RCOG in the United Kingdom.
Each year, the American Society of Clinical Oncology conducts its National Cancer Opinion Survey to better understand Americans' views on a wide range of cancer-related issues and uncover areas that need to be addressed.
