The Effects of COVID-19 on Cancer Care Provision: A Systematic Review.

This systematic review aims to gather primary data from cancer institutions that have implemented changes to cancer service provision amid the COVID-19 outbreak to inform future intervention and health care facility response strategies. A comprehensive literature search was done on Global Health Medline and EMBASE using pertinent key words and MeSH terms relating to COVID-19 and Cancer service provision. A total of 72 articles were selected for inclusion in this systematic review. Following the narrative synthesis that was conducted of the literature, 6 core themes that encompassed common cancer service intervention adopted by institutions were identified: (1) Testing and Tracking, (2) Outreach and Communication, (3) Protection, (4) Social Distancing (5) Treatment Management, (6) Service Restructuring. Since cancer patients are a high-risk population amid the COVID-19 pandemic, these areas of targeted intervention can be used to inform necessary actions in institutions facing similar risks, based on previous learning from numerous cancer centers globally.

Optimising endocrine therapy in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer.

Hormone receptor-positive breast cancer is commonly treated with endocrine therapy (ET); however, over time, cancer cells can develop endocrine resistance. This review aims to document combination therapy and sequential therapy in the use of endocrine agents and targeted agents, by conducting two systematic searches using four databases: Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science. A total of 26 studies that covered combination therapy were obtained and included for the review. Fourteen were phase III documenting combinations of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors. The remaining studies were of phase II nature that reported combinations involving inhibitors in mTOR, endothelial growth factor receptor, CDK4/6 and TKI. Interesting findings in inhibitor combinations involving CDK4/6, mTOR and PI3K suggest clinical activity that can overcome endocrine resistance. On the other hand, there were 0 studies that covered sequential therapy. Overall findings showed that combination therapy improved treatment efficacy over monotherapy in postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer. Inevitably, the benefits are accompanied with increased toxicity. To optimise ET, further research into combinations and effective patient selection will need to be defined. Additionally, this review warrants future studies to explore sequential therapy.