Nuclear Medicine and Oncology in the COVID-19 pandemic era

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic poses a significant challenge to the national health systems. Not only China, the first country that experienced the health crisis since last December, but the rest of the world, is facing an unprecedented global health crisis, the most serious crisis in a century, with social and economic impact. However, the most important impact of the new pandemic is the human impact. Till 4^th of June 2020, coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, causing COVID-19 disease, has infected more than 65000.000 people and has been responsible for more than 386000 deaths globally. The first priority of public health authorities is to contain and mitigate the spread and infection rate of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, distributing the number of infections over time and, if possible, reduce the incidence of the disease (COVID-19) it causes. A critical task for health systems confronted with the spread of the coronavirus is to protect the health of all citizens, so this requires that both diagnosis/testing and appropriate care should be readily available, affordable, and provided in a safe environment. The health care systems of many developed countries failed to demonstrate a satisfactory response to the increased demand for acute care hospital beds, ventilators, emergency services, diagnostics tests, support equipment for their COVID-19 patients, availability of essential medicines, protective equipment for their staff etc. Nuclear Medicine (NM) departments and their staff, in spite of the fact that not being in the front line of the pandemic response, have experienced a dramatic alteration in their daily clinical activity, trying to adapt their clinical routine to the new environment. There are several issued guidance from national and international organizations, trying to help to cope with suspected or verified COVID-19 patients. Patients with cancer are thought to be more susceptible and have higher morbidity and mortality rates from COVID-19 than the general population. In the current article, our aim is to present measures, guidance and thoughts that should be considered for the cancer patients.