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Ethical Considerations in Chemotherapy and Vaccines in Cancer Patients in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Schiappacasse, Guido V.
Affiliation
  • Schiappacasse GV; Oncology Department, Clinical Hospital of Viña del Mar, Limache Street 1741, Viña del Mar 2520000, Chile.
Curr Oncol ; 28(3): 2007-2013, 2021 05 26.
Article in En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34073214
The COVID-19 situation is a worldwide health emergency with strong implications in clinical oncology. In this viewpoint, we address two crucial dilemmas from the ethical dimension: (1) Is it ethical to postpone or suspend cancer treatments which offer a statistically significant benefit in quality of life and survival in cancer patients during this time of pandemic?; (2) Should we vaccinate cancer patients against COVID-19 if scientific studies have not included this subgroup of patients? Regarding the first question, the best available evidence applied to the ethical principles of Beauchamp and Childress shows that treatments (such as chemotherapy) with clinical benefit are fair and beneficial. Indeed, the suspension or delay of such treatments should be considered malefic. Regarding the second question, applying the doctrine of double-effect, we show that the potential beneficial effect of vaccines in the population with cancer (or those one that has had cancer) is much higher than the potential adverse effects of these vaccines. In addition, there is no better and less harmful known solution.
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Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Patient Selection / Time-to-Treatment / Clinical Decision-Making / COVID-19 / Neoplasms Type of study: Etiology_studies / Prognostic_studies / Risk_factors_studies Aspects: Ethics / Patient_preference Limits: Humans Language: En Journal: Curr Oncol Year: 2021 Document type: Article Affiliation country: Chile Country of publication: Switzerland

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Patient Selection / Time-to-Treatment / Clinical Decision-Making / COVID-19 / Neoplasms Type of study: Etiology_studies / Prognostic_studies / Risk_factors_studies Aspects: Ethics / Patient_preference Limits: Humans Language: En Journal: Curr Oncol Year: 2021 Document type: Article Affiliation country: Chile Country of publication: Switzerland