Title:COVID-19 Vaccinations: Summary Guidance for Cancer Patients in 28
Languages: Breaking Barriers to Cancer Patient Information
Volume: 17
Issue: 1
Author(s): Davide Mauri*, Konstantinos Kamposioras, Lampriani Tsali, Mario Dambrosio, Berardino De Bari, Nadia Hindi, Carl Salembier, Joanna Nixon, Tzachanis Dimitrios, Flippo Alongi, Hassan Hameed, Antonios Valachis, Konstantinos Papadimitriou, Stefanie Corradini, Lazar Popovic, Jindrich Kopecky, Andres Rodriguez, Katarina Antunac, Junlin Yi, Jozsef Lovey, Primoz Strojan, Haytham Saraireh, Ranveig Røtterud, Marzanna Chojnacka, Santa Cruz Olalla, Natalia Chilingirova, Ramon Andrade De Mello, Giovanna Araujo Amaral, Farsid Arbabi, Radu Vidra, Erjeta Rapushi, Dan Takeuchi, Chirstos Christopoulos, Irina Ivanova, Igor Djan, Branka Petricevic, Francesco Cellini, Iglika Mihaylova, Natalija Dedic Plavetic, Cvetka Grašič Kuhar, Elena Takeuchi, Pantelis Kountourakis, Panagiotis Ntellas, Ioanna Gazouli, Stefania Gkoura, Salih Yuce, Özlem ER, Chait Yasmina, Gireesh Kumaran, Orges Spahiu, Aasim Yusuf, Paulina
Gono, Kathi Apostolidis and Maria Tolia
Affiliation:
- Department Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
Keywords:
Population, vaccination, cancer patients, languages, global, guidance.
Abstract:
Background: Covid-19 vaccination has started in the majority of the countries at the
global level. Cancer patients are at high risk for infection, serious illness, and death from
COVID-19 and need vaccination guidance and support.
Guidance availability in the English language only is a major limit for recommendations’ delivery
and their application in the world’s population and generates information inequalities across the different
populations.
Methods: Most of the available COVID-19 vaccination guidance for cancer patients was screened
and scrutinized by the European Cancer Patients Coalition (ECPC) and an international oncology
panel of 52 physicians from 33 countries.
Results: A summary guidance was developed and provided in 28 languages in order to reach more
than 70 percent of the global population.
Conclusion: Language barrier and e-guidance availability in the native language are the most important
barriers when communicating with patients. E-guidance availability in various native languages
should be considered a major priority by international medical and health organizations that
are communicating with patients at the global level.
