Will delays from the coronavirus pandemic affect localised prostate cancer outcomes?

Abstract

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents a unique situation whereby governing bodies seek to balance the risks of deferring treatment with the preservation of hospital resources. For the moment, there are no widely accepted “COVID-19 era” management guidelines for patients with prostate cancer. Many difficult decisions need to be made on a case by case basis, bearing in mind hospital capabilities, disease risk, patient factors and of course patients’ mental health and anxiety. For prostate cancer, urology teams will need to manage an already overcrowded list of patients needing radical prostatectomies. Fortunately, the literature demonstrates that delays of up to 12 months with no ADT are not associated with adverse outcomes post operatively for all categories of localised prostate cancer.