Abstract
Rehabilitation care after pelvic radiotherapy toxicity is a turning point. Because of the difficulties in accessing rehabilitation, care services during the pandemic may impact physical functioning, increasing disability. This issue is of utmost importance in the management of radiation toxicity, especially in women treated for gynecological tumors. Indeed, the post-radiation toxicity in long-term survivors of gynecological cancers often compromises the patient's well-being, even after she is declared free from the disease. This commentary aims to highlight the issues related to women’s health after radiotherapy, the call for a multidisciplinary perspective to support female patients’ well-being and try to provide recommendations to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19 impacts on gynecological rehabilitation. Therapeutic approaches require a continuous and multidisciplinary approach that involves the oncologists (radiation, medical, and gynecological oncologists) together with other figures, such as pelvic floor rehabilitation experts, physiatrists, physiotherapists, psycho-oncologists, and sexologists. On top of that, treatment and rehabilitation require intense continuous collaboration between the patient and the professionals in the chair. Looking beyond the pandemic, this short reflection opens up the topic of well-being for female patients and how a multidisciplinary approach can support recovery reducing physical and psychological disability. There is a call for guidelines for the management of the pelvic rehabilitation of long-term survivors. Strong leadership for the inclusion of this topic in the residency programs in the field of oncology is needed to ensure high-value care and reduce long-term sequelae.
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Barcellini, A. et al. (2023). A Short Reflection on Multidisciplinary Approaches to Women’s Health After Radiotherapy. In: Paoloni, P., Lombardi, R. (eds) When the Crisis Becomes an Opportunity. SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business Administration. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21932-0_17
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