Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of a sample of breast cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

OVID-19 is a novel coronavirus. On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the current outbreak of COVID-19 and later on 11th of Mar-2020 the number of cases has increased and the number of affected countries has increased, that made the WHO to declare the COVID-19 as a global pandemic. It has brought great challenges to the treatment of patients with cancer due to the nature of the cancer disease, characteristics of cancer patients (who usually have other comorbidities) and the nature of their immuno-suppressive treatments. Patients with cancer may suffer more during this epidemic period as they are immunocompromised. People who currently have cancer are at higher risk for serious illness if they do become infected. It is important to know that they do not necessarily have a higher risk of catching the virus compared to others. The purpose of this study was to translate the questionnaire done in India by Ghosh to Arabic and to validate it. Also to assess the patients’ knowledge, attitude and perception about the COVID-19 pandemic and their willingness about continuation of anti-cancer treatment. Patients’ answers were correlated with age, comorbidities, level of education, aim of treatment and knowledge about immunosuppression.