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Global Health Econ Sustain

REVIEW ARTICLE
Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

on the quality of life of cancer patients: A
systematic review

1
Paraskevi Theofilou * and Dimitris D. Vlastos 2,3
1 General Hospital of Thoracic Diseases SOTIRIA, Athens, Greece
2 Department of Psychology, Scientific College of Greece, Athens, Greece
3 Laboratory of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Scientific College of Greece, Athens, Greece
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Chronic Diseases – The Psychosocial Perspective)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on the overall quality of life
experienced by patients suffering from various types of cancer. This systematic review
aimed to explore the level of health-related quality of life among cancer patients
during the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic review was performed on articles
written in English and indexed in the PubMed database, retrieved using the keywords
“COVID-19,” “quality of life,” and “cancer” combined with the logical operator AND. Our
investigation revealed a significant disruption in the quality of life of cancer patients
Academic editor: due to COVID-19, with a pronounced impact on their psychological well-being
Mihajlo Jakovljevic M.D. Ph.D. MAE stemming from the protective measures implemented to curb viral transmission.
*Corresponding author: Given that cancer patients already belong to one of the most vulnerable groups,
Paraskevi Theofilou they are particularly susceptible to negative consequences. Moreover, delays in
(pardrothe@gmail.com) diagnosis and treatment occurred due to restrictive measures, exacerbating disease
Citation: Theofilou, P. & progression. The findings from this systematic review underscored the significant
Vlastos, D.D. 2024. Assessing the impact of the pandemic on cancer patients, who exhibited a markedly diminished
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic quality of life. In conclusion, it is vital that all health systems respond effectively
on the quality of life of cancer
patients: A systematic review. to crises, eliminating any form of discrimination among patients and ensuring the
Global Health Econ Sustain, 2(2): uninterrupted provision of oncology care without any postponements or delays.
2636.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2636
Received: January 4, 2024 Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Quality of life; Cancer patients; Systematic review
Accepted: January 24, 2024
Published Online: March 11, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). 1. Introduction
This is an Open-Access article Since the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has emerged, rapidly spreading
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution worldwide and developing into a pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is a virus responsible for causing
License, permitting distribution, COVID-19 in humans, mainly affecting the respiratory system, while at the same time
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is causing complications in the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and neurological systems.
properly cited. This particular virus is transmitted through airborne micro droplets expelled when an
Publisher’s Note: AccScience infected individual coughs, talks, or sneezes. It causes influenza-like symptoms with a
Publishing remains neutral with high transmission rate and severe pathogenicity (Li Wang & Wang, 2021). To mitigate
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional the spread of COVID-19, necessary protective measures were implemented to ensure
affiliations. public health as much as possible. These measures primarily concerned the use of masks

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2636