The experience of oncological services in the context of a pandemic in Russia and abroad was discussed at the second international Expert Council of AOR

On July 21, 2020, the II Multidisciplinary Expert Council with international participation was held under the auspices of the Association of Oncologists of Russia and with the support of the Ministry of Health of Russia. The topic of the meeting was the discussion of the accumulated experience of oncological services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was held in an online format with the participation of the Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Public Relations of the Ministry of Health of Russia S.M. Muravyev and leading experts in the field of oncology from Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain. The chairman of the expert council was Andrey Kaprin, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the Association of Oncologists of Russia, General Director of the FSBI “NMIC Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia, chief freelance oncologist of the Ministry of Health of Russia.

The Expert Council is being held for the second time. The results of the first meeting, which took place in April 2020, showed that such discussions help not only to evaluate the experience of various countries in organizing care for cancer patients in new conditions, but also to develop really effective solutions for providing timely and, most importantly, full-fledged care to cancer patients.

“The issues that were put up for discussion at the second expert council are among the most pressing for modern healthcare,” S.M. Muravyov stressed. He noted that oncological patients are at high risk, which is why the development of effective approaches in the treatment of oncological patients diagnosed with a new coronavirus infection and the competent organization of the oncological service is of fundamental importance.

Opening the expert discussion, Chairman of the Council A.D. Kaprin noted that the oncology service is in a century of changes. “Exactly 100 years ago, the world was already experiencing a powerful epidemic – the “Spanish flu”, which claimed a huge number of lives. Unfortunately, there is no reliable data on the impact of this pandemic on cancer patients, since this issue has not been given close attention. And how much we will be able to unite and be open to each other in this struggle depends both on the development of all cancer care, and what kind of legacy we will leave to our descendants,” A.D. emphasized. Kaprin.

The Council was held with the participation of experts from Italy, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands. The discussion was attended by: Cosimo Scarnera – Director of the Department of Public Health Prevention (Italy); Joachim G. Aerts – MD, Head of the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam (Netherlands); Maria Del Grande – MD., oncologist at the Oncological Institute of Southern Bellinzona (Switzerland); Luisa Sanchez Lorenzo is a specialist in Medical Oncology at the Department of Medical Oncology at the University of Navarre Clinic, (Spain).

The purpose of the meeting of experts was to exchange the accumulated experience of cancer care services and discuss the tactics of treating cancer patients in the conditions of the COVID-19 epidemic 4 months later. During the discussion, the participants were able to analyze successful decisions and mistakes in the activities of cancer services, discuss the prospects of work in the context of the development of a possible “second wave” of the pandemic. Experts talked about how the scheme of work of oncological departments was built, how approaches in surgery, chemo- and radiation therapy have changed, shared their experience of actively introducing telemedicine technologies into daily practice, talked about the experience of conducting scientific and clinical research during the coronavirus period.

Press Service of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia