Abstract 1741P
Background
The recent COVID-19 outbreak in Italy required timely adoption of efficient triage procedures (TPs) with the aim to minimize the risk of infection spreading in the hospitals. We developed a written questionnaire (items explored: fever, respiratory symptoms, previous contacts or personal positivity for COVID-19) together with body temperature (BT) measurement, to intercept patients (pts) with suspect of COVID-19 infection.
Methods
We conducted a monocentric observational study of a consecutive series of outpatients with diagnosis of solid tumor, accessing the Day Unit of Oncology Department at Udine Academic Cancer Center (Northern Italy) from 30 March 2020 to 30 April 2020. In this abstract we present the preliminary results of the TPs performed until 10 April 2020.
Results
1054 TPs were performed out of 586 pts, with a median of 2 TPs per pt. Median age was 64.9 years, males were 35.4%. Overall, 82.5% of TPs were made because of access for therapy, 10.7% for programmed procedures, radiological exams or non-oncological consultations, 1.2% for unplanned presentation (e.g. urgencies). The stage of neoplasm was early in 30.7% and advanced in 69.3% of pts. TPs were made in pts receiving chemotherapy (58.2%), immunotherapy (10.8%), targeted therapy (18.9%), other therapies (5.2%) and in pts without active oncological therapy (6.9%). The questionnaires resulted positive in 5.5% of cases; 2.9% were positive for fever, 2.9% for respiratory symptoms, 0.1% for previous contact with a case of COVID-19. Concomitant presence of 2 or more items was observed in 0.5% of questionnaires. Of note, 6 TPs required medical evaluation despite a negative questionnaire and were considered to be clinically suspect. BT≥37°C was observed in 7 TPs. Overall, the oncologic program was postponed in 0.9% of the TPs, while in 0.5% a test for SARS-CoV-2 was performed for clinical suspect: no one resulted positive. At multivariate analysis, factors associated with positive triage were diagnosis of thoracic cancer (OR 2.06; 95%CI 1.02-4.12; p=0.04) and prior test for SARS-CoV-2 (OR 2.81; 95%CI 1.46-5.41; p=0.001).
Conclusions
A well-structured triage for COVID-19 could reduce the risk for further spreading of infection in Oncology facilities with limited impact on scheduled activities.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
F. Puglisi: Honoraria (self): MSD; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy, Research grant/Funding (self), Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Roche; Honoraria (self), Advisory/Consultancy: Eli Lilly; Honoraria (self): Takeda; Pfizer; Advisory/Consultancy: Amgen; Novartis; Pierre Fabre; Research grant/Funding (self): Astrazeneca; Eisai; Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Celgene; Servier. C. Andreetta: Advisory/Consultancy: AstraZeneca; GlaxoSmithKline; MSD. A.M. Minisini: Advisory/Consultancy: Novartis; MSD; Pierre Fabre. G. Fasola: Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony, Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Bristol-Myers Squibb srl; Eli Lilly SpA.; Servier Italia SpA.; Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony: Astrazeneca; Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Merck Sharp and Dohme S.p.A.; Boehringer-Ingelheim S.p.A. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.