Re: Fabio Turco, Andrew Armstrong, Gerhardt Attard, et al. What Experts Think About Prostate Cancer Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Report from the Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference 2021. Eur Urol. 2022;82:6-11.

We read the report by Turco et al [1] with great interest. The study presents the opinions of panelists at the 2021 Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference regarding prostate cancer management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consensus was reached for COVID-19 vaccination for patients with advanced prostate cancer, with a recommendation rate of 97%. Although the report provides decision suggestions for patients receiving routine therapeutic drugs, it does not mention specific recommendations for patients seeking clinical trial opportunities.

The recently published ARASENS trial highlighted the importance of COVID-19 vaccination for patients enrolled in clinical trials [2]. The trial enrolled patients from November 2016 to June 2018, and therefore all patients received docetaxel chemotherapy before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, six men died of COVID-19-related disease during follow-up, accounting for 11.3% of patients with treatment-emergent grade 5 adverse events. Since combination treatment approaches incorporating chemotherapy are currently being tested in several clinical trials, we suggest that vaccination should be recommended for patients enrolled in clinical trials in order to maximize investigational treatment safety and to reduce the potential influence of COVID-19 on survival analyses.

: The authors have nothing to disclose.