Maintenance Therapy or Metronomic Treatment Replacement Intravenous Phase in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia During COVID-19 Pandemic: New Strategy
Letter to Editor
Coronavirus pandemic has prompted physicians and healthcare providers to change the treatment for cancer patients, especially those with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. During the Covid19 pandemic, oncologists around the world must choose the best strategy for these immunocompromised patients to reduce coronavirus infection and maximize patient survival. Conventional chemotherapy with intravenous formulation may cause severe neutropenia and cause fever and infection in various parts of the body. COVID-19 pneumonia may occur in 16% of patients undergoing chemotherapy. The infection also mimics the symptoms of CMV pneumonia or pulmonary aspergillosis and P.Carini's pneumonia. The first solution for oncology patients is simply to stop standard treatment or delay treatment to overcome the dangerous course of coronavirus, but this strategy is more specific to solid tumors [1].