Dr. Chang on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Surgical Management of GU Cancers

Steven Lee Chang, MD, assistant professor of surgery, Harvard Medical School, associate surgeon, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, discusses the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the surgical management of patients with genitourinary (GU) cancers.

Many patients with GU cancers do not require immediate surgical intervention, Chang says. For example, patients with early-stage renal cell carcinoma (RCC) can often be monitored or treated with alternative therapies, such as ablation.

Patients with low-risk prostate or bladder cancers may also be eligible to safely receive nonsurgical management, explains Chang.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, specific protocols were formulated to assess a patient’s urgency for surgery, Chang continues. For example, patients with stage III RCC were categorized as very urgent, as withholding surgery could be detrimental to a patient’s outcome. 

Patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma who require nephroureterectomy and those with muscle-invasive bladder cancer were also deemed urgent, concludes Chang.