COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity for the Radiotherapy Department.

Madam — As healthcare processes are being disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic, providing cancer care is becoming increasingly challenging. Recommendations on the rationalisation of radiotherapy have already been published by leading experts [[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]]. The common ground is primarily to provide pragmatic strategies for risk mitigation, without compromising treatment outcomes. Nevertheless, an opportunity has presented itself for those radiotherapy departments that have been deliberating the implementation of organisational and therapeutic changes.

Building on the experience of our institution, we provide initial insights on exploiting COVID-19 as a positive stimulus for optimising the radiotherapy department. Fortunately, preventive measures were taken early after the virus outbreak in Italy, our neighbouring country. Screening patients before arrival and, if indicated, testing for COVID-19 proved to be an effective approach. In line with an action plan that encouraged social distancing between employees and a reduction in unnecessary consultations, substantial changes were made within our department:

A considerable shift towards hypofractionation. Although normofractionation was partly practised before, hypofractionation was demanded for justified indications. In adjuvant breast cancer radiotherapy (25% of irradiated patients), hypofractionation increased from 65% to over 80% (all breast cases) and from 86% to 98% (excluding regional nodes cases). Cardiac sparing is achieved using prone positioning and voluntary deep inspiration breath-hold as an alternative to active breathing control due to droplet precautions.

Rapid implementation of remote working. Access to hospital information systems as well as contouring and planning from home was made possible for staff members. A working group was established to implement a paperless workflow.

Update of clinical guidelines and protocols. Time spared with a moderately reduced workload was put into in-depth review and updating a number of documents.

Adjustments were only possible because the situation remained under control without reaching the maximum capacity of the healthcare system, and thanks to adequate decision-making of the departmental leadership. The consequences of COVID-19 are here and will last a while, so let us use them to our advantage.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest