Dr. Choueiri on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Treatment in RCC

Toni K. Choueiri, MD, director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director of the Kidney Cancer Center, and senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as the Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg chair and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the impact the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had on diagnosing and treating patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Even prior to COVID-19, treatment options were debated in RCC, says Choueiri.

Now, given the ongoing pandemic, even more nuanced discussions are taking place regarding the timing of therapy and surgery, Choueiri explains.

Patients with RCC often receive cytotoxic chemotherapy. Now, cytotoxic chemotherapy is commonly given in combination with growth factor support to mitigate the potential of developing neutropenic fever which could bring a patient into the hospital, says Choueiri.