Management changes for patients with endocrine-related cancers in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Substantial management changes in endocrine-related malignancies have been required as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a draconian reduction in the screening of asymptomatic subjects, delay in planned surgery and radiotherapy for primary tumors deemed to be indolent, and dose reductions and/or delays in initiation of some systemic therapies. An added key factor has been a patient-initiated delay in the presentation because of the fear of viral infection. Patterns of clinical consultation have changed, including a greater level of virtual visits, physical spacing, masking, staffing changes to ensure a COVID-free population and significant changes in patterns of family involvement. While this has occurred to improve safety from COVID-19 infection, the implications for cancer outcomes have not yet been defined. Based on prior epidemics and financial recessions, it is likely that delayed presentation and treatment of high-grade malignancy will be associated with worse cancer outcomes. Cancer patients are also at increased risk from COVID-19 infection compared to the general population. Pandemic management strategies for patients with tumors of breast, prostate, thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal gland are reviewed.

Embryonal tumors in Canadian children less than 36 months of age: results from the Canadian Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (CPBTC).

Embryonal tumors are a heterogeneous group of central nervous system (CNS) tumors whose subgroups have varying incidence and outcome. Despite these differences, they are often grouped as a single entity for study purposes. To date, there are no Canadian multi-institutional studies examining the incidence and outcome of all embryonal subtypes. The current study is an observational study reviewing embryonal tumors in all patients less than 36 months of age diagnosed with a CNS tumor in Canada from 1990 to 2005. Embryonal tumors accounted for 26.9% of all CNS tumors. Medulloblastomas were the highest proportion of the embryonal tumors at 61.5%. Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (AT/RT) had the second highest proportion of embryonal tumors at 18%. The proportion of primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET) was 16%, with 2.6 and 1.9% for congenital medulloepithelioma and ependymoblastoma tumors, respectively. AT/RT and PNET were more common in younger age groups. Medulloblastoma became more prevalent with increasing age, with its highest prevalence in the 25 to 36 month age group. Survival rates for our Canadian population at 18 and 24 months were 0.74 and 0.68 for medulloblastoma, 0.64 and 0.60 for PNET, and 0.36 and 0.29 for AT/RT, respectively. Overall, our data are comparable with published international rates for embryonal tumors. These incidence and outcome figures can guide future research into these rare tumors.