| 1. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and COVID-19- There is no significant relationship between the protective role of ADT on COVID-19 infection and mortality.[6-13] |
| 2. Diagnosis, treatment, and mortality of patients with prostate cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic- Local anesthetic transperineal prostate biopsy (LATP) was the preferred method of prostate biopsy by clinicians during the pandemic.[16]- Decrease in diagnostics and treatment was pronounced during the first lockdown with a rebound late-pandemic.[19-26]- Patients were more likely to have a malignant pathology at diagnosis[22] or in a more advanced stage after prostatectomy.[27]- Clinical visits, prostate biopsy, and men enrolled in active surveillance were significantly lower while the number of advanced and metastatic prostate cancer cases increased during a year of the pandemic.[27]- Although there was a consistent reduction in radical prostatectomy (RP), radiotherapy (RT) had a lesser reduction or was increased in some studies.[20, 21, 23, 27]- Overall hospitalization and mortality rates were higher in patients with prostate cancer and COVID-19 compared with patients with solid cancers and COVID-19.[28] |
| 3. The effect of delayed treatment- Patients with localized prostate cancer who were treated during the pandemic had a higher risk of extra-prostatic disease and lymph node invasion due to a delay in the administration of curative-intent therapies.[31]- There is no significant difference in early adverse oncologic outcomes between intermediate, high-risk patients who received immediate RP and any level of delay up to 12 months.[32]- Overall and cancer-specific survival was significantly worsened among intermediate-risk patients receiving monitoring compared to immediate RP (but not in low-, high-risk patients).[33] |
| 4. Quality of life of patients with prostate cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic- Patients with prostate cancer and delayed operations had higher state anxiety than trait anxiety, especially higher in young patients[34]- Cognitive deterioration was more frequent in patients treated with ADT, even more after the COVID-19 pandemic.[35] |
| 5. Vaccination and prostate cancer- CD4+ T cells of SARS-CoV-2-unexposed patients with hormone-resistant metastatic prostate cancer had decreased CD4+ T cell immune responses to antigens from SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein but not from the spiked glycoprotein of the human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E). [36]- Similar median titers of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were observed in twenty-five prostate cancer under treatment with androgen receptor-targeted agents such as abiraterone or enzalutamide with healthy controls.[37] |