SIOG IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19

This year we witnessed that COVID-19 affected the whole world, but more than others, older persons remained the most vulnerable. Both age and cancer increase the risk of suffering from COVID-19 and dying from it, and the two risk factors add on.

Moreover, older persons with cancer are at highest risk of being excluded from intensive care support for COVID-19 infection and/or adequate cancer treatment if resources are limited.

SIOG ensured that concrete statements and practical recommendations are made available in a timely manner - for all health care workers dealing with older persons with cancer. It should however be clearly acknowledged that these are empirical considerations, not based on solid science, which at the onset of the pandemic, didn't exist yet unfortunately. Position papers, research letters, hospital guidelines concerning older patients with cancer have been produced rapidly since the COVID-19 crisis appeared in the month of March. It is SIOG’s mission to diffuse all this important work through its website and network in order to increase visibility as much as possible.

In the meantime, we have received messages that research projects (retrospective and prospective) are starting to learn about what has happened or is happening with COVID-19 and older persons with cancer. SIOG also aims to collect information on starting or ongoing projects in order to facilitate collaborations. SIOG has already established a COVID-19 Working Group to deal with this issue.

Prof. Hans Wildiers SIOG President (2018-2020) On behalf of the SIOG Board of Directors and the SIOG COVID-19 Working Group