Perceptions of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with genitourinary cancers: a survey study.

Since the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, their safety and efficacy has been widely demonstrated in patients with cancer. However, there remain patients with reservations regarding vaccination. We aimed to assess genitourinary cancer patients' perceptions of the vaccines as well as barriers and influencers of decision-making through the completion of a questionnaire. While vaccine-associated concerns were observed, most patients with genitourinary cancers were willing to receive the vaccine. Moving forward, differing strategies could be considered to enhance patient education on the utility of vaccination in the setting of cancer and beyond.

Managing Bladder Cancer Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Team-Based Approach.

The recent novel coronavirus, named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has developed into an international pandemic affecting millions of individuals with hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. The highly infectious nature and widespread prevalence of this disease create a new set of obstacles for the bladder cancer community in both delivering and receiving care. In this manuscript, we address the unique issues regarding treatment prioritization for the patient with bladder cancer and how we at City of Hope have adjusted our clinical practices using a team-based approach that utilizes shared decision making with all stakeholders (physicians, patients, caregivers) to optimize outcomes during this difficult time. In addition to taking standard precautions for minimizing COVID-19 risk of exposure for those entering a healthcare facility (screening all personnel upon entry and donning facemasks at all times), we suggest the following three measures: (1) delay post-treatment surveillance visits until there is a decrease in local COVID-19 cases, (2) continue curative intent treatments for localized bladder cancer with COVID-19 precautions (i.e., choosing gemcitabine/cisplatin (GC) over dose-dense methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, cisplatin (ddMVAC) neoadjuvant chemotherapy), and (3) increase the off-treatment period between cycles of palliative systemic therapy in metastatic urothelial carcinoma patients.