Guidelines for Surgery in Urologic Cancer Patients Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Posted by Robert G. Uzzo, MD, MBA, FACS | Mar 2020

Robert G. Uzzo, MD, MBA, FACS, and Fernando J. Kim, MD, MBA, FACS, presented “Guidelines for Surgery in Urologic Cancer Patients Amid COVID-19 Outbreak” for the Grand Rounds in Urology audience in March, 2020.

How to cite: Uzzo, Robert G. Kim, Fernando J. “Guidelines for Surgery in Urologic Cancer Patients Amid COVID-19 Outbreak” March, 2020. Accessed Apr 2024. https://grandroundsinurology.com/guidelines-for-surgery-in-urologic-cancer-patients-amid-covid-19-outbreak/

Guidelines for Surgery in Urologic Cancer Patients Amid COVID-19 Outbreak – Summary:

Robert G. Uzzo, MD, MBA, FACS, Chairman of the Department of Surgery and G. Willing “Wing” Pepper Endowed Professor of Surgery at Fox Chase Cancer Center–Temple University Health System, and Fernando J. Kim, MD, MBA, FACS, Chief Emeritus of Urology at Denver Health Medical Center, Professor of Surgery/Urology at the University of Colorado at Denver, and Associate Editor of the Patient Safety in Surgery Journal, discuss the rationale behind guidelines Dr. Uzzo helped develop for the American College of Surgeons and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on when and whether to delay surgical treatment for urologic cancer during the COVID-19 outbreak. They discuss the inconsistent initial approach to delaying surgeries, as well as the system of disease classification Dr. Uzzo has been using to identify which patients can wait, which should wait, and which can’t wait for their surgeries. With a focus on kidney cancer, Dr. Uzzo discusses how these classifications are made by identifying clinical capacity, physiological age of the patient, competing risks and comorbidities, and how difficult cases are determined with a consensus among colleagues. He gives examples of patients with low volume metastatic disease with excellent performance status or locally advanced disease as candidates for systemic therapy and a delay in surgery, while patients with aggressive disease that may progress rapidly as requiring immediate treatment despite the risk of COVID-19 infection.

For other urology-focused information on the COVID-19 pandemic, visit our resource page.

About The Author

Robert G. Uzzo, MD, MBA, FACS

Robert G. Uzzo, MD, MBA, FACS, is Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Fox Chase Cancer Center–Temple University Health System, where he is the G. Willing “Wing” Pepper Endowed Professor of Surgery. He also serves as the organization’s Deputy Chief Clinical Officer and President of the Medical Group. Regionally, Dr. Uzzo is the Chair of the Fox Chase/Einstein Urologic Institute of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Executive Director of the nation’s second-largest urologic quality collaborative (the Pennsylvania Urologic Regional Collaborative, or PURC). Dr. Uzzo’s work focuses on the surgical management of genitourinary malignancies. Dr. Uzzo graduated summa cum laude and valedictorian from Union College’s accelerated 6-year biomedical program in Schenectady, New York. He attended Cornell University Medical College in New York City, where he was a New York State Finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship Competition. He completed general surgical training followed by urologic surgical training at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was an American Foundation for Urological Diseases Scholar in Urological Oncology and completed both Oncological and Renal Transplantation Fellowships at the Cleveland Clinic under Dr. Andrew C. Novick. Dr. Uzzo’s primary research has been in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), with a special focus on clinical decision making, surgical management, and adjuvant therapies. Dr. Uzzo has been involved in multiple national and international trials in kidney cancer. He has authored over 400 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in urologic oncology. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Urology, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an elected member of both the prestigious American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and the Clinical Society of GU Surgeons.

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