Elsevier

Brachytherapy

Volume 19, Issue 4, July–August 2020, Pages 412-414
Brachytherapy

COVID-19
Brachytherapy during the coronavirus disease 2019 – Lessons from Iran

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brachy.2020.05.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

COVID-19 outbreak is not a short-time crisis, and discontinuing or postponing life-saving treatments is not logical. Brachytherapy is one of the important treatment modalities for some subsites of cancers. Therefore, we decided to consider some of the best feasible brachytherapy regimes during the pandemic.

Methods and Materials

We considered brachytherapy guidelines and landmark trials and selected the most efficacious indications of brachytherapy, considering the best regimens to minimize the risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Results

We developed appropriate recommendations amid the COVID-19 pandemic for brachytherapy management of cervical, endometrial, breast, prostate, head and neck, and soft-tissue sarcomas.

Conclusions

Brachytherapy provides an opportunity for the patients and the physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak; it can retain the patient's chance for treatment while limiting the chance of exposure and transmission of infection.

Keywords

Brachytherapy
COVID-19
Iran

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Financial disclosure: The authors report no proprietary or commercial interest in any product mentioned or concept discussed in this article.

This study was completely conducted in Radiation Oncology Department Ward, Iran Cancer Institute, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

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