Home-based chemo skyrockets at one US center
Source: www.medscape.com Author: Nick Mulcahy In the fall of 2019, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia started planning a pilot program of home-based chemotherapy for two treatment regimens (one via infusion and one via injection). Six months later, the Cancer Care at Home program had referred 40 patients. The uptake within the university's large regional health system was acceptable but not rapid, admitted Amy Laughlin, MD, a hematology-oncology fellow involved with the program. Then COVID-19 arrived, along with related travel restrictions. Suddenly, in a 4-week period (March 10 to April 7), an additional 135 patients had been referred ― a 300% increase from earlier. The list of chemotherapies delivered went from two to seven, with more coming. "We're not the pilot anymore ― we're the standard of care," Laughlin told Medscape Medical News. "The impact [on patients] is amazing," she said. "As long as you are selecting the right patients and right therapy, it is feasible and even preferable for a lot of patients." For example, patients with hormone-positive breast cancer who receive leuprolide (to shut down the ovaries and suppress estrogen production) ordinarily would have to visit a Penn facility for an injection every month, potentially for years. Now, a nurse can meet patients at home (or before the COVID-19 pandemic, even at their place of work) and administer the injection, saving the patient travel time and associated costs. This home-based chemotherapy service does not appear to be offered elsewhere in the United States, and a major oncology organization [...]