Radiation therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experience from Beijing, China

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) is now a global pandemic. It is unclear to radiotherapy practitioners how to carry out radiotherapy during the epidemic. Patients and Methods: After the outbreak of COVID-19, our Institute established measures for the prevention and control of COVID-19, and continues to treat patients according to these measures. The Radiotherapy Department has been divided into a clean zone and a semicontaminated zone, and corresponding personal protective equipment is used in these zones. The temperature of patients and their escorts, and history of fever are assessed daily. Special procedures are performed during radiotherapy setup and intracavitary brachytherapy. Results: Over a period of 2 months, 655 patients were treated in the Department. Sixteen patients with fever were identified and no patient undergoing radiotherapy or medical staff have been infected with COVID-19. Conclusion: Our protective measures were found to be effective and can be used as a reference in places where COVID-19 situations are not markedly serious.