Management strategies for patients in the oncology radiotherapy department during an outbreak of novel coronavirus infection

ABSTRACT

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly infectious and causes severe harm to human health. Almost everyone is susceptible to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is thought that COVID-19 is transmitted via droplets and close contact without protection. Aerosol propagation is possible in confined space. Preclinical patients and recessive infected people have certain infectivity, which increases the difficulty of prevention and control. Treatment for cancer patients needs to be continuous. Cancer patients on radiotherapy once a day need continuous treatment. Since a large number of patients come to the hospital for radiotherapy, medical staff need to contact them frequently. It is particularly important to absolutely avoid cross infection between tumor patients and medical staff. To this end, we have developed detailed management strategies, including establishing a core group, standardizing inpatient diagnosis and treatment processes, standardizing outpatient radiotherapy patient process, strengthening the ward and room disinfection, strengthening personnel management and other measures. We hope this paper provides reference for the department of tumor radiotherapy. © 2020, Editorial Board of Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University (Medical Sciences). All right reserved.