Perspectives of Gynecologic Oncologists on Minimally Invasive Surgery During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Turkish Society of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Oncology (MIJOD) Survey.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate gynecologic oncologists' trends and attitudes towards the use of Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in active period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. METHODS: Online national survey sent to members of Turkish Endoscopy Platform consisting of six sections and 45 questions between the dates 1-15 June 2020 in Turkey to explore their surgical practice during the pandemic in three hospital types: Education and research hospital/university hospital, state hospital and private Hospital. Participants were gynecologic oncologists who are members of Turkish Endoscopy Platform. RESULTS: Fifty-eight percent of participants canceled all operations except for cancer surgeries and emergent operations. About a quarter of participants (28%) continued to operate laparoscopically and/or robotically. For the evaluation of the suspected adnexial mass (SAM) 64% used laparotomy and only 13 % operated by laparoscopy (L/S). For the management of low-risk early-stage endometrial cancer only fifth of the participants preferred to perform L/S. For endometrial cancer with high-intermediate risk factors more than half of participants preferred complete staging with laparotomy. For advanced stage ovarian cancer, one-fifth of the participants preferred to perform an explorative laparotomy, whilst 15 % preferred diagnostic laparoscopy to triage the patients for either NACT or cytoreductive surgery. On the contrary 41 % of participants chose to have cytology by paracentesis for neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). Gynecologic oncologists with >10 years L/S experience used MIS more for SAM. Furthermore, experienced surgeons used L/S more for endometrial cancer patients. In busy COVID hospitals, more participants preferred laparotomy over L/S. CONCLUSION: Use of MIS decreased during the pandemic in Turkey. More experienced surgeons continued to perform MIS. Surgical treatment was the preferred approach for SAM, early-stage endometrial cancer.  However, NACT was more popular compared to radical surgery.

#Goasco20: success of a new twitter hashtag to promote gynaecological oncology specific information during asco 2020 virtual annual meeting

242 Figure 1Abstract 242 Table 1Conclusion‘#goASCO20’, a unique Gynaecological Oncology hashtag was created to disseminate Gynaecological Oncology information from ASCO 2020 virtual event. #goASCO20 was one of several gynaecological oncology hashtags used. Each of these were used by relatively small groups of individuals. Discussions were fragmented resulting in an overall lower profile for Gynaecological Oncology related tweets compared to general tweeting during ASCO 2020. The use of Twitter in academia is increasing. Its use during such conferences facilitates the spread of clinical knowledge;arguably more than any other academic platform. Gynaecological oncology tweeting needs coordination and agreement on a common hashtag to organise content at virtual events and between meetings.DisclosuresEsra Bilir: Member of Communication and Social Media Committee at The European Network of Young Gynae Oncologists (ENYGO) since May 2020.Christina Uwins: Nothing to declareGraham Mackenzie: Nothing to declare.Ílker Selçuk: European Network of Young Gynae-Oncologists (ENYGO) Executive Group Member (2017–2021) (ENYGO Social Media Committee Chair)Geetu Bhandoria: Nothing to declare