Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Management in the COVID-19 Era: Risk of Infection, Adapted Role of Endoscopy, and Potential Treatment Algorithm Alterations

Apostolou, Konstantinos; Vogli, Stamatina; Frountzas, Maximos; Syllaios, Athanasios; Tolia, Maria; Papanikolaou, Ioannis S.; Schizas, Dimitrios

INTRODUCTION: The safety of upper gastrointestinal cancer patients in the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak is extremely important and most surgeons need to establish a contingency management. AIM: In this study, we present the surgical outlines of patients suffering from upper gastrointestinal cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were obtained from PubMed, Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials, and SCOPUS of reports up to September 2020. RESULTS: The COVID-19 outbreak makes surgical procedures extremely difficult to be performed. The most common criteria to prioritize patients for surgical treatment are stage, tumor biology, presence of tumor-related symptoms, the risk of tumor to become non-resectable, and time interval from neoadjuvant therapy. The multidisciplinary teams can help assigning a priority level to each clinical case. CONCLUSION: We have to continue providing treatment to oncologic patients in the face of COVID-19 uncertainty, with higher caution and responsibility in order to develop a safer and more effective personalized treatment plan.