코로나-19 바이러스 : 제한된 의료 자원의 방사선 치료 및 환자의 보호 강화 연구
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in 2019/2020 became a significant
problem not only for first-line healthcare but also for cancer patients, who are at
the risk of severe or fatal outcome of potential infection. In recently published
papers about radiotherapy (RT) in various cancers, there are suggestions to use
more hypofractionated RT (HFRT) regimens during the COVID-19 pandemic to
reduce overall treatment time (1). Unfortunately, HFRT in soft tissue sarcomas
(STS) is rarely mentioned and underestimated. SARS-CoV-2 infection in a tertiary
STS clinic or RT department might cause a shortage of experienced staff by
putting them in quarantine. What is more, the interrupted treatment cannot be
continued in other institutions with the maintenance of high-quality care due to
lack of necessary knowledge, experience, and equipment. Perioperative
conventionally fractionated RT (CFRT), namely between 1.8 and 2.0Gy per fraction
by 5 to 7 weeks, is considered to be a standard regimen in STS (2). There is
growing evidence that preoperative HFRT could be also a possible therapeutic
approach and its wide introduction may be a controversial but necessary solution.