Ethical Considerations in Chemotherapy and Vaccines in Cancer Patients in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Curr Oncol
; 28(3): 2007-2013, 2021 05 26.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1243960
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 situation is a worldwide health emergency with strong implications in clinical oncology. In this viewpoint, we address two crucial dilemmas from the ethical dimension (1) Is it ethical to postpone or suspend cancer treatments which offer a statistically significant benefit in quality of life and survival in cancer patients during this time of pandemic?; (2) Should we vaccinate cancer patients against COVID-19 if scientific studies have not included this subgroup of patients? Regarding the first question, the best available evidence applied to the ethical principles of Beauchamp and Childress shows that treatments (such as chemotherapy) with clinical benefit are fair and beneficial. Indeed, the suspension or delay of such treatments should be considered malefic. Regarding the second question, applying the doctrine of double-effect, we show that the potential beneficial effect of vaccines in the population with cancer (or those one that has had cancer) is much higher than the potential adverse effects of these vaccines. In addition, there is no better and less harmful known solution.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Patient Selection
/
Time-to-Treatment
/
Clinical Decision-Making
/
COVID-19
/
Neoplasms
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Curr Oncol
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Curroncol28030186
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