Because we are still in a time when the pandemic with the new type of coronavirus is quite noisy and many more lives are endangered or lost, I consider that we must always have this in our medical thinking, and not only in the present. The pretherapeutic testing of cancer patients remains mandatory, although we now know that different co-treatments of these infections in the general population are not significant. The ESMO recommendation remains valid, namely that these cancer patients should be treated continuously with appropriate cancer therapy, taking into account the well-known antiepidemic measures. A recent article on the evolution of the pandemic in the USA and the United Kingdom – countries that were more seriously affected by the pandemic than Romania – reveals the possible appearance of its end in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year. However, this depends on the observance of the imposed sanitary measures.
“Transition toward normalcy in the United States remains most likely in the second quarter of 2021 and herd immunity in the third and fourth quarters, but the emergence of new strains and a slow start to vaccine rollout raise real risks to both timelines”, suggest the latest report from the international management consulting firm McKinsey and Company, titled “When Will the COVID-19 Pandemic End?”.
In 2020, some authors declared that they weren’t just trying to share the things that we cared about.
Scientific debates took place in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, but in the “epoch of COVID-19” they took place on Twitter, TikTok, Zoom and in the pages of the written press. Although these communication systems have done their job, the frustration is high and everyone is interested in real-time debates.
And in the midst of a pandemic, some things can be done if there are elements of interest and enthusiasm that characterize many young people. This is how I comment on the oncological event from February 18-20: The National Scientific Forum of Young Oncologists. We consider this event of great importance, because it denotes the interest in education and research of young doctors who have chosen to study oncology from several perspectives: clinical, pathological anatomy, genetics etc. It is also a welcome initiative of the National Society of Medical Oncology from Romania, which is more and more present in the professional activity of oncologists in Romania. We hope that the works presented – in order to be even better known and their authors have an objectification of what they have worked on by publishing in an internationally indexed journal – will be received by the editors for peer review and publication.