You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Case report
Harmful consequences of COVID-19 fear in patients with cancer
Free
  1. Osman Sutcuoglu,
  2. Ozan Yazici,
  3. Ahmet Ozet and
  4. Nuriye Ozdemir
  1. Medical Oncology, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
  1. Correspondence to Dr Osman Sutcuoglu, Medical Oncology, Gazi University, 06500 Ankara, Turkey; sutcuogluo{at}gmail.com

Abstract

The rapid spread of COVID-19 infection and its negative effects on human health caused a great change in oncology practice. Although oncologists respond quickly to this change, anxiety caused by pandemics in some patients prevented cancer treatment. Although patients know that delaying cancer treatment can be life-threatening, they are concerned about contacting the hospital because they are afraid of becoming infected with COVID-19. Here, we would like to present three patients with delayed admission to the hospital to draw attention to the harmful consequences of COVID-19 fear in the community. These patients with cancer-related anxiety may exaggerate protective attitudes during the pandemic process, leading to delayed oncological treatment and poor prognosis of the patient.

  • cancer
  • prognosis
  • quality of life
  • psychological care
  • supportive care

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002628

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by OS and OY. The first draft of the manuscript was written by OS and OY, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.