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.