Introduction:
Patients with breast cancer should make regular hospital visits
throughout the course of their treatment. This is especially important
for patients with recurrence or metastasis because their condition can
rapidly worsen, and the clinical course and prognosis vary considerably
from patient to patient.1 Therefore, to provide
therapeutic interventions in a timely manner, it is necessary to
periodically review and assess the imaging diagnosis.
However, the novel coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has
rapidly changed the situation of breast cancer treatment, and this is no
exception in Japan. Since the initial cases were detected in Japan in
March 2020, some hospitals in urban areas have restricted visits of
patients, especially those living in other prefectures, as a measure
against infection.2 In addition, some patients
refrained from visiting hospitals to avoid possible contact with
COVID-19 patients.3
As one of solutions, some hospitals have started to provide telemedicine
and drug prescriptions for patients who cannot visit hospitals for
various reasons, which was not widely utilized before in
Japan.4 In fact, there has been a rapid increase in
remote video consultations for patients with various diseases, such as
cancer.5 However, the disadvantages of such remote
cancer care have not yet been sufficiently clarified, especially in
patients with advanced breast cancer.
In this case report, we present a woman with advanced breast cancer who
received routine remote video consultations but unable to have medical
imaging during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in delayed detection of
her liver metastasis.