id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-308002-abgv87e4	Porta, Camillo	Editorial debate: Challenges an oncologist has to face during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic within a universal healthcare system	2020-05-04		.txt	text/plain	736	54	61	In these dramatic days of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, what is our role as oncologists in a country like Italy, characterised by a very high prevalence of the Covid-19 infection and high mortality rates, and a universal healthcare system? Our healthcare system is overwhelmed by the number of critically ill patients, by the need for beds and ventilators in our intensive care units (ICUs), 1 not to mention the very serious situation facing many physicians and nurses working in war-like conditions, becoming infected and sometimes dying from Covid-19. 5 However, many of us are used to administering relatively useful anticancer treatments, because ultimately these treatments are reimbursed (at least in a country such as Italy); this is because patients often ask for further therapies (especially when not adequately informed about their prognosis), and because it is definitely easier to prescribe a new agent, instead of trying to explain that end-of-life care is sometimes the most ethical, although tough, choice to pursue.	./cache/cord-308002-abgv87e4.txt	./txt/cord-308002-abgv87e4.txt