International Journal of Advances in Medicine | June 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 6 Page 1035 International Journal of Advances in Medicine Pathak A et al. Int J Adv Med. 2020 Jun;7(6):1035-1039 http://www.ijmedicine.com pISSN 2349-3925 | eISSN 2349-3933 Review Article Chemotherapy in COVID-19 pandemic: to give or not to give? Abhishek Pathak 1 *, Subhash Ranjan 1 , Anvesh Rathore 2 , Rajan Kapoor 1 , Alpana Gupta 3 INTRODUCTION The novel Coronavirus is a new pathogen identified in patients of pneumonia in a city of Wuhan, in Hubei province of China. The termCOVID-19 is an abbreviation for Coronavirus Disease 2019 given by WHO in February 2020. 1 It is also referred to as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2). Since this is a new pathogen for humans, our body does not have any immunity against this disease, and hence it spreads rapidly, infecting almost everyone who comes in its contact. What started as a seasonal flue in china has now spread to nearly the entire world, killing over one lakh individuals. This disease has now been declared as a pandemic by WHO. 2 Since it is a very new disease, not much is known how it affects cancer patients, but one thing which we all know is that cancer patients come under the groups of patients who are at high risk for contracting this disease. All the patients who are on either chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy and even those who have earlier been treated for cancer are much more vulnerable to contracting the infection by COVID 19. This is indeed a very challenging time for both cancer patients and their treating oncologists. It raises a few fundamental questions related to patients as well as health care providers. First, should cancer patients leave their homes to visit the cancer clinic and thereby possibly expose themselves to ABSTRACT COVID-19 is a new pathogen for humans, not much is known how it affects cancer patients, but definitely there is high risk for cancer patients contracting this disease. So to find a solution to this very challenging situation the oncologists need to formulate certain guiding principles for cancer treatment in this pandemic era. Authors have divided this cancer patients into four categories depending upon the urgency of giving chemotherapy. The lowest priority being Priority A where delaying chemotherapy till this pandemic gets over will not harm the patients much and the highest priority being given to Priority D where authors do not want even a delay of days/ week. It is Priority B and C where the decision needs to made by the clinicians. However, in case authors decide to give chemotherapy in present setting there are certain changes that needs to be made both on patient as well as the hospital end. Like higher degree of awareness among patients, rational usage of resources of the hospital etc. It is indeed a very difficult time for cancer patients who are trying to cope up with malignancy and for most of them; the coronavirus is an extra concern and worry. Till the time authors learn how best treat and care to this patients during this pandemic era do what you can do to keep you and your family stay safe and Healthy. Keywords: COVID 19, Cancer, Chemotherapy, SARS-cov-2, Pandemic 1 Department of Malignant Disease Treatment Centre, Command Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Malignant Disease Treatment Centre, Army Hospital (Research and Referral), New Delhi, India 3 Department of Pathology, Transfusion Centre, Command Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Received: 16 April 2020 Accepted: 08 May 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Abhishek Pathak, E-mail: drabhipat@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3933.ijam20202125