McGregor Details GU Treatment Guidelines During COVID-19 Pandemic

Welcome to a very special edition of OncLive® On Air! I’m your host today, Jessica Hergert.

OncLive® On Air is a podcast from OncLive, which provides oncology professionals with the resources and information they need to provide the best patient care. In both digital and print formats, OncLive covers every angle of oncology practice, from new technology to treatment advances to important regulatory decisions.

Today, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Bradley McGregor, MD, clinical director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary (GU) Oncology and senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, to discuss new treatment guidelines that were issued by faculty at Dana-Farber to help manage patients with GU cancers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained the healthcare system, requiring oncologists to adapt their practices to optimize care for their patients in the absence of robust treatment guidance.

The proposed guidelines were created to provide guidance to healthcare professionals at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in addition to its satellites and referring physicians on how treatment can be amended to minimize potential COVID-19-related complications while preserving quality care.

According to the proposed guidelines, general considerations during the COVID-19 pandemic stipulate that providers should avoid, if possible, the use of immunosuppressive steroids, minimize patients’ hospital exposure, and employ G-CSF support for patients that are receiving systemic cytotoxic chemotherapy and are at risk for neutropenia.

The guidelines, which were suggested, discussed, and revised by faculty at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, are subject to change as more information becomes available.

In our exclusive interview, Dr. McGregor discussed the purpose of the guidelines, some of the main factors that influenced the recommendations in GU cancers, and the impact of the pandemic on some of the most common treatment interventions such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy, for patients with these malignancies.