Telehealth in breast cancer following the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Jean Zeghondy (1) , Elie Rassy (1, 2, 3) , Pietro Lapidari (1) , Roland Eid (1) , Barbara Pistilli (4, 5, 6)

1 IGR - Institut Gustave Roussy
2 CESP - Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations
3 U1018 (Équipe 2) - Oncostat
4 DIOPP - Département interdisciplinaire d’organisation des parcours patients
5 PMNCO - Prédicteurs moléculaires et nouvelles cibles en oncologie
6 Département de médecine oncologique [Gustave Roussy]

Breast cancer (BC) is the second most diagnosed cancer in 2018 with around 2.3 million cases globally in 2020. In March 2020 and after its worldwide spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, a respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, a pandemic. During this time, cancer patients were heavily impacted and their treatment plans were changed due to measures to fight the disease and solutions had to be found to maintain their follow-up and management from a distance. Some cancer groups worldwide have recommended then the use of telemedicine for oncology patients to ensure the continuity of medical care during the pandemic. This method was considered effective and clinicians worldwide continued using telehealth even after the cessation of worldwide restrictions. To this end, current up-to-date data on the use of telemedicine in BC patient after the COVID-19 outbreak are summarized in this narrative review.

Keywords: Telehealth; telemedicine; breast cancer; breast neoplasms; coronavirus disease 2019; pandemic Not applicable

Domains: Cancer; Methods and statistics; Statistics [stat]; Other Statistics [stat.ML]; Methodology [stat.ME]

Jean Zeghondy, Elie Rassy, Pietro Lapidari, Roland Eid, Barbara Pistilli. Telehealth in breast cancer following the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Exploration of Targeted Anti-tumor Therapy, 2023, 4 (6), pp.1249 - 1259. ⟨10.37349/etat.2023.00195⟩. ⟨inserm-04563875⟩