Delivery of Cancer Care at Home during the First COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: A Case Series Study (DomOnCOVID Project)

Delivery of Cancer Care at Home during the First COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: A Case Series Study (DomOnCOVID Project)

Review Data

Q: Is the topic relevant to the journal area of interest? Is it contemporary and interesting for

researchers?

A: Excellent

 

Abstract & Keywords

Q: Are all required components included in the abstract? Are the keywords appropriately chosen?

A: Very good

 

Goal

Q: Is the goal explicitly stated in the Introduction? Is its formulation clear and unambiguous?

A: Very good

 

Structure

Q: Is the paper's structure coherent? Is it in coherence with the goal of the paper?

A: Good

 

Tools and Methods

Q: Are methods the author uses adequate and well used?

A: Good

 

Discussion & Conclusion

Q: Is it related to the results presented before? Do you consider them as coherent?

A: Good

 

Comments:

The Results of this pilot study can help decide whether the program could be routinely implemented in COVID emergency and in post-emergency conditions. The Discussion puts forth the rationale behind limiting the number of unnecessary hospital accesses of patients and caregivers and suggests that home care may be useful to contain COVID-19 spread. Moreover, it may reduce the distress of more fragile individuals, such as people with cancer, by guaranteeing essential care, close monitoring and timely intervention. The Conclusion is consistent with the results in stating that delivery of cancer care at home is feasible and may be particularly useful not only during health crises but also after the epidemic in order to reduce hospital access, patient and care-giver travel and improve their quality of life.

 

Literature

Q: Does the author utilize relevant literature?

A: Very good

 

Author's knowledge

Q: What is the level of the author’s knowledge? Does the author utilize all recent contributions relevant to the topic?

A: Good

 

Length

Q: Is the length of the paper adequate to the significance of the topic? Do you suggest shortening the paper without losing its value?

A: Good

 

Figures & Tables

Q: Does the author use them suitably? Are legend and notations clear?

A: Good

 

Writing style

Q: Is it clear and understandable?

A: Very good

 

Further comments on the paper

Comments: This paper describes the results of an oncological home care project called DomOnCOVID, made during the first COVID epidemic in Italy. It aims to provide care to patients in their own homes, enabling to keep immunocompromised individuals away from health care facilities and decrease hospital use. The study is of significance as the project highlights that it is possible to treat cancer patients at home by reducing access to the hospital and emergency rooms. It describes this intervention in terms of feasibility and clinical outcomes. Literature suggests that individuals with cancer need diligent preventive care measures and aggressive surveillance for earlier detection of COVID-19, given their higher risk of infection-related complications. The study has several limitations including, lack of a control group, randomizing patients to the intervention, sample size being limited to citizens residing in the Cremona area and conducted in only one hospital and sample size was not defined a priori, but was determined by the epidemic’s trend.

 

Q: Would you recommend this manuscript for further publication?

A: Yes - Suitable to be published

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Author Info

Corresponding Author
Rodolfo Passalacqua
Oncology Division, ASST Istituti Ospitalieri, Viale Concordia, Cremona, Italy

Article Info

Article Type
Case Series and Review of the Literature
Publication history
Received: Wed 26, May 2021
Accepted: Wed 09, Jun 2021
Published: Mon 21, Jun 2021
Copyright
© 2023 Rodolfo Passalacqua. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.COR.2021.06.05