Cancer survivorship care during COVID-19—perspectives and recommendations from the MASCC survivorship study group

This editorial draws on the authors’ experiences and the results of a survey of cancer professionals to contextualize the major disruptions taking place globally in survivorship care as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer survivors’ follow-up care has been severely affected due to increased risk of infection associated with hospital attendance, limited workforce availability and other resource constraints, implementation of new protocols to screen patients impacting workflow, and concerns of patients and health care providers about risk of infection [1]. Evidence-based recommendations on how to manage cancer survivors in a pandemic are lacking and much of the general guidance (such as CDC guidelines) [2] suggests that clinic visits for cancer survivors, including routine surveillance visits to detect cancer recurrence, should be postponed [3]. Such a situation is problematic especially if the pandemic is long lasting, leaving important survivorship issues and concerns unaddressed. In the absence of appropriate guidelines, cancer survivors are at increased risk of inappropriate or inconsistent follow-up care that could have far-reaching and even life-threatening results.