COVID‐19 and liver cancer clinical trials: not everything is lost

D’Alessio, Antonio; Personeni, Nicola; Pressiani, Tiziana; Bozzarelli, Silvia; Smiroldo, Valeria; Simonelli, Matteo; Lleo, Ana; Santoro, Armando; Rimassa, Lorenza

Since the first cases in Wuhan, China, during the month of December 2019, coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) evolved into a worldwide emergency, becoming one of the deadliest pandemics of modern history. As we write, the outbreak has led to 3,595,662 confirmed cases and 247,652 deaths worldwide(1). SARS‐CoV‐2, the virus responsible for the disease, is a single‐stranded RNA virus which can cause a wide clinical spectrum of symptoms. According to the available knowledge, a large but still unknown percentage of the infected patients remains asymptomatic, representing an important and insidious vehicle of transmission(2). According to the largest case series to date, most of the symptomatic patients complain of a mild respiratory syndrome (81%), while approximately 14% develop a severe disease requiring hospitalization and a further 5% need intensive care(3).