How did cancer patients experience confinement?

• If the morale and the psychic are severely tested during this anxiety-provoking period, fighting cancer in Covid's time is even more complicated.
• For some patients in this situation, confinement has not changed much in their daily lives.
• But for many, the deconfinement which should start on May 11 (well, so far) will not rhyme with relief, because their illness requires them, still for a long time, to limit contacts and visits.

There is a disease that did not interrupt its ravages during this coronavirus crisis, and which remains the first cause of death in France in 2019: cancer. When the fear of the Covid is added to the fight against this pathology, the anxieties and the renunciations are combined in the plural. The questions faced with a deconfinement that only has its name too.

20 Minutes gave the floor to its Internet users to find out how they lived their confinement and how they envisage the future. As well as Suzette Delaloge, oncologist. Who recalls in the preamble: "we must not neglect cancer, much more dangerous than Covid".

Modified treatment monitoring

Many believe that this parenthesis has not changed much in their daily lives due to cancer. If it is only the follow-up of the care, more by teleconsultation in particular, was a little reorganized. Christophe, who is fighting against very aggressive cancer, explains: “I already avoided going out during periods of chemotherapy, since I was immunocompromised. My center continued to provide me with care and treatment, and I was even operated on in complete confinement a fortnight ago, with all the protection and kindness necessary. So yes, I did not have the right to visits, the associations which deal with the care of comforts did not pass any more and the caregivers, masked, seemed less accessible. But I had planned for it: reading light, many photos of my relatives and friends on the wall of my room, video, games with the caregivers… ”

Hélène, 39, who has had metastatic breast cancer since October 2019, explains that for treatment, “it has changed absolutely nothing: I continued to go to the ICM once every three weeks. The difference lies just in the use of the mask, the prohibition to be accompanied and the respect of safety distances. Restrictions that are sometimes difficult to live with. "To announce a diagnosis of cancer without accompanying, it is very hard", explains Suzette Delaloge, head of the service of senology to Gustave Roussy. Which specifies that for cancer patients who caught Covid, "we could not continue immunosuppressive therapy, and the surgeries were postponed." More generally, certain operations have been postponed. To the point that caregivers and patient associations alerted the ministry. Finally, Olivier Véran announced on May 2 at the Parisienthat cancer operations will continue, despite the extension of surgical restrictions.

A huge thank you to @olivierveran & @MinSoliSante for listening and taking into account the alarms of our association about delays and loss of chances due to cancellations of #cancer surgeries. Now you have to reprogram the chirs waiting since March! pic.twitter.com/eRLiKw8OMB

And increased anxiety

Some patients regret the time when they could take bike rides, share a meal with their children or see their doctor for real ... The impossibility of playing sports (however advised), of seeing the therapists was not necessarily good supported by all. According to Suzette Delaloge, part of her patients suffered from loneliness. “In some cases, the great lack is the family. We tried to call the most isolated regularly. "

The other major difficulty was psychological: to endure the uncertainty linked to cancer in addition to the questions linked to the coronavirus. While many initially believed that people with cancer were at high risk of dying from Covid-19, the growing data - but which remains to be confirmed - reveals that "people who have cancer and a poor general condition are a little more at risk of making a serious Covid than the others, advance Suzette Delaloge. But this factor is less important than comorbidities (hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes…) and age ”.

Nevertheless, these recent and unrecognized data have not prevented many patients from getting bloody inked during these long weeks without work and without relatives. "The anxiety that everyone feels in someone who has an ongoing illness is increased tenfold," says the cancer specialist. Particularly with Jean-Luc, 61 years old. "The" covid-19 containment "per se did not really bother me, apart from the lack of family visits. I still have to admit an apprehension always present, turning almost to anxiety, at each exit, even if I limit them to the maximum. "

Anger and a sense of waste

Rose, 75, didn't really taste how France handled the plight of these patients. “Cancer patients, like residents in nursing homes, were purely and simply abandoned to their fate by the public authorities. It is scandalous that the Ministry of Health has not taken the necessary measures to provide the means to protect themselves (hydroalcoholic gel, masks and gloves) for immunocompromised patients. "

For some, whose prognosis is engaged, the emergence of this virus forced to give up precious projects. Delphine, 64, knows she is doomed and had planned to spend a vacation surrounded by her friends, her daughter and her granddaughter. "And here is this coronavirus, this confinement, which destroys my last months of life. Until now, I had never been mad at my cancers. This time, I am demolished. And I know I'm not the only one in this case… ”

A deconfinement that raises questions

However, a second phase opens. A week from a still very vague deconfinement, these patients ask themselves a lot of questions. And know that for them, unfortunately, May 11 will not mean liberation. "My only discharges will be at the hospital, still as protected," says Isabelle, 47 years old. I will not let a virus wipe out all of my efforts over the past year to fight this cancer. I will therefore continue to treat myself, but above all to isolate myself for as long as it takes. "

Hélène, 48, even speaks of "double punishment". In chemotherapy for five months "a few days from a deconfinement, I tell myself that it will be even more difficult than before. Everyone will be happy to go out and see their loved ones. What will not be possible neither for me, nor for my husband, nor for my 12 year old daughter who dreams of seeing her friends. "

Illustration of a patient suffering from breast cancer at the Institut Curie. - Curie Institute

Case by case

"Our patients have a lot of questions about deconfinement," confirms Suzette Delaloge. Who recalls that each case is specific. "If we have had cancer and it has been cured for more than six months, I think we do not have any particular risk linked to this virus. She underlines the importance, for those awaiting a diagnosis, of carrying out the necessary examinations without delay. "On the other hand, for people undergoing chemotherapy, they have to be careful," she says. If you are in an area where the viral circulation is weak, you can start to see people from May 11, with a mask permanently, a bottle of hydroalcoholic gel, respecting the distances. For people who live in the red zone, it is better to stay at home. "

A survey released on Tuesday April 28, conducted by the RoseUp Association among 1,065 patients, specifies that the concerns are multiple: 85% of them fear that a return to the office would make them take risks, and 77% would like to have an exemption so that their children don't go back to school. An extremely complex decision, recognizes Suzette Delaloge. “For a child, it is very fragile to have a sick parent and in addition to not being able to go to college or high school. As soon as they go back to school, there will be more risk. Everything is in the benefit / risk ratio for the family. "

Delphine, 38, being treated in chemotherapy for breast cancer, decided not to put her children back in college. And this exceptional situation in no way affects his perseverance. “I don't pretend not to have sleeplessness. But a few months ago, I got into a fight to ensure whatever it cost me my long-term survival and stay forty more years with my loved ones. While it rains, it "covides", it sells, I will go all the way! "

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• Covid 19
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