COVID-19 pneumonia

Cancer patients with COVID-19 may be at increased risk of aggravation and death, and infectious risk of SARS-CoV-2 should be avoided as possible. It is a challenge to provide cancer therapy under circumstances where COVID-19 is rapidly spreading worldwide. Pharmacotherapy plays a central role for the treatment of advanced cancer. When a patient during anticancer therapy develops pneumonia, we need to cite, as differential diagnosis, anti-cancer drug induced lung injury as well as various pulmonary diseases such as viral pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, Pneumocystis pneumonia, and fungal pneumonia. In the current epidemic, COVID-19 pneumonia must also be kept in mind as well. Frequent symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, malaise, cough and dyspnea. Although bilateral multiple ground glass opacities with some consolidation of reticular shadow located at peripheral of lung are reported characteristics of COVID-19 imaging findings, it is difficult to diagnose COVID-19 pneumonia just by CT findings. It is also difficult to distinguish it from drug-induced lung injury in patients receiving cancer treatment. In addition to the imaging findings, we need to comprehensively distinguish various differential diagnoses in cancer patients who develops pneumonia in the COVID-19 pandemic, considering clinical symptoms, behavioral history and other clinical tests. Here, we describe clinical features and imaging findings of COVID-19 pneumonia and the points to be noted in cancer treatment in the era of COVID-19.