LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Turkish Society of Medical Oncology COVID-19 Pandemic Advisory Board Updated Recommendations for Medical Oncologists: Included Vaccination
Received Date : 01 Feb 2021
Accepted Date : 08 Feb 2021
Available Online : 18 Mar 2021
Ahmet Taner SÜMBÜLa, Şuayip YALÇINb, Ahmet ÖZETc, Serhat ÜNALd, Ömer DİZDARb, Hakan AKBULUTe, Aziz KARAOĞLUf, Nuri KARADURMUŞg, Mehmet Ali Nahit ŞENDURh, Ebru ÇILBIRı, Fatih YILDIZi, Gülnihal TUFANi, Özlem UYSAL SÖNMEZj, Nazım Serdar TURHALk
aDepartment of Medical Oncology, Başkent University Adana Dr. Turgut Noyan Application and Research Center, Adana, TURKEY bDepartment of Medical Oncology, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, TURKEY
cDepartment of Medical Oncology, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, TURKEY
dDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, TURKEY
eDepartment of Medical Oncology, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, TURKEY
fDepartment of Medical Oncology, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir, TURKEY
gDepartment of Medical Oncology, University of Health Sciences Gülhane Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, TURKEY hDepartment of Medical Oncology, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, TURKEY
ıDepartment of Medical Oncology, University of Health Sciences Dr. Abdurrahman Yurtaslan Ankara Oncology Training and
Research Hospital, Ankara, TURKEY iDepartment of Medical Oncology, University of Health Sciences Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Center, Ankara, TURKEY jDepartment of Medical Oncology, Acıbadem University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, TURKEY kClinic of Medical Oncology, Anadolu Medical Center Johns Hopkins Hospital, Kocaeli, TURKEY
Doi: 10.37047/jos.2021-81962 - Article's Language: EN
J Oncol Sci. 2021;7(1):1-6
ABSTRACT
COVID-19, which hit the world toward the end of 2019, continues to affect all aspects of people’s lives.1 More than 100 million
people have been infected in the past year, while more than 2 million people have died because of COVID-19.2 For Turkey more than
31 million COVID-19 polimerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed, 2.6 million cases diagnosed and more than 27000 deaths seen at the
end of 2020 Turkey has started vaccination at 14th of January 2021 and more than 4 million people vaccinated during first month and it is ongoing.
3 People have slowly and steadily learned how to prevent this virus infection through lifestyle changes like social distancing and good
hygiene during the past year. Moreover, we have learned more about effective treatment approach during active infection. Importantly, new
advancement has included the development of vaccines and we know that vaccination is the most potent medical tool for protecting humans
against COVID-19. As Turkish Medical Oncologists, we are aware that cancer patients require continuous treatment; therefore, we actively
followed-up and continued treatment uninterruptedly in the past year in the light of guidelines and recommendations of the TTOD COVID-
19 Advisory Board.4-6 As the Turkish Medical Oncology Society, we would like to update our patient management and develop recommendations
for vaccinations against coronavirus, which seems to persist globally, at least for a while now.
Keywords: COVID-19; Turkish medical oncology; vaccination
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