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Global Health Econ Sustain COVID-19 pandemic and quality of life of cancer patients

Table 1. Summary of the selected reviews
References Characteristics
Li et al., 2021 • Investigation on the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cancer patients.
• List of measures taken by various organizations worldwide for the protection of cancer patients.
Garutti et al., 2020 • Summary of the psychological issues of patients with cancer: logistic overload, loneliness, fear, oxymoronic thoughts,
helplessness, frustration, and emotional overload.
• An extensive description of the above psychological threats and quoting practical proposals for their management.
Kumar and Dey, 2020 • Treatment delay classification and analysis factors that delay treatment.
• Categorizatios of the factors due to its delay’s treatment of patient-related factors and health summary-related factors.
• List of the advantages and disadvantages of delays and explanation of the implications for patients.
Pelle et al., 2020 • The effective conduct of surgical operations in patients with breast cancer during the pandemic.
Wang et al., 2020 • The impact of COVID-19 on the psychology and treatments received by lung cancer patients.
Al-Maweri et al., 2020 • The importance of rapid diagnosis of oral cancer and how COVID-19 affects diagnosis and patient habits and that the
presentation of telemedicine is a good solution.
Longo et al., 2021 • The management of head-and-neck cancer patients during the outbreak of the pandemic included reorganization of the
outpatient clinic and, more generally, regulation of the operation of health structures using telemedicine and protection
protocols against the spread of the virus.
Rakhsha et al., 2020 • The modification of oncology care for patientssuffering from cancer in a developing country during the pandemic using
personalized health-care protocols.

the infection from COVID-19 and the evolution of cancer consequences, which reduced their overall quality of
due to reduced access to health facilities. Frey et al. (2020), life. Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic caused serious
Longo et al. (2021), Pelle et al. (2020), Catania et al. (2020), financial problems, resulting in many cancer patients
and Wang et al. (2020) concluded that patients with cancer finding themselves in an unfavorable economic position,
types they were researching felt a strong fear of contracting which led to them not being able to afford the treatment.
COVID-19. Frey et al. (2020), Longo et al. (2021), Gallo In particular, Frey et al. (2020), Gallo et al. (2021), and
et al. (2021), Catania et al. (2020), and Wang et al. (2020) Younger et al. (2020) agreed that the economic effects of
agreed that ovarian cancer patients, HNC, and lung cancer, the pandemic affected the quality of life of cancer patients,
respectively, felt, at the same time, a fear of the development while on the contrary, Soriano et al. (2021) and Kurzhals
of cancer during the pandemic. Soriano et al. (2021), Pelle et al. (2021) argued that financial issues had no impact
et al. (2020), Bartels et al. (2021), and Ratnasekera et al. on cancer patients. In addition, due to the restrictive
(2020) concluded that the patients they investigated had measures imposed to avoid the spread of COVID-19,
severe fear of cancer progression. their social interactions were reduced, which affected their
The research of Kurzhals et al. (2021) in patients with social lives. Specifically, Gallo et al. (2021) emphasized the
skin cancer instead showed low levels of fear during the social stigma in patients with HNC who, due to the intense
pandemic, while Greco et al. (2021), who investigated cough, which is a clinical symptom of the disease, aroused
cancer urinary tract, and Younger et al. (2020), who the suspicion that they probably suffer from COVID-19.
examined sarcoma, did not report the parameter of fear. Also, as reported by Frey et al. (2020), women with ovarian
In addition, all authors except Catania et al. (2020), Wang cancer, were forced to remain at home and in isolation due
et al. (2020), and Greco et al. (2021) agreed that loneliness to fear of disease, losing their social role as mothers and
was one of the basic feelings experienced by cancer wives.
patients during the pandemic. The Gallo et al.’s (2021) 4. Discussion
report highlighted that patients with HNC were twice
as likely to develop suicidal tendencies during COVID- The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about
19 as compared to patients with other forms of cancer. significant changes in the daily lives of cancer patients. Due
However, the development of telemedicine in the midst of to the protective measures for COVID-19, the overload of
the pandemic has helped cancer patients mitigate negative the health system, and the modifications of the protocols of
emotions such as anxiety and fear, as well as through the health facilities, the oncology community found itself
communication with their doctor. in an extremely unfavorable position.
In addition to the psychological effects caused by Delays in cancer treatment during the pandemic
the pandemic, cancer patients faced more adverse contributed to the progression of the disease. The delay

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2636