Newly diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) during COVID-19 pandemic: changes in therapeutic approach to minimize in-hospital SARS-COV-2 contagion in pre-vaccine era

Main Article Content

Valeria Internò
Roberta Rudà https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9134-1537
Maria Chiara Sergi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-6841
Riccardo Soffietti https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9204-7038
Camillo Porta https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2412-1563

Keywords

Glioblastoma Multiforme, Hypofractioned radiotherapy, Covid-19, In-hospital contagion, Multimodal therapy

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized the way in which cancer patients are treated worldwide. Regarding neuro-oncological patients, usually considered frail and with lower life-expectancy in respect to other oncological patients, the international scientific community had to urgently reorganize the treatment approach in order to minimize the risk of in-hospital contagious. For GBM patients, adjuvant treatments have been evaluated with even much more attention with regard to the expected efficacy. As a consequence, an hypofractioned radiotherapy regimen has been preferred in order to reduce the daily hospital accesses and, especially in pMGMT unmethylated patients, chemotherapy with Temozolomide was avoided. Here, we made a comprehensive evaluation of the neurooncological community suggestions regarding GBM treatment in the pre-vaccine era of COVID-19 pandemic.

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