Ensuring the best care to cancer patients in the COVID-19 pandemic era: insights and challenges.

On 11/3/2020, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 is a pandemic emergency. In this scenario, cancer patients are to be considered at higher risk, being fragile and often with disease-related or treatment-induced immunodepression. Furthermore, this health emergency generates a harmful psychological impact on these patients, who fear a lot about losing the continuity of cancer therapy. This fact must be carefully considered by health personnel, especially in countries where heavy risk containment and social distancing measures, the only epidemiological strategies currently considered adequate, are in force. In short, this is a very delicate challenge for health professionals engaged in oncology. Here, we report some insights and challenges that healthcare professionals face daily in caring for cancer patients.