Turkish Radiation Oncology Association President Prof. Dr. Gökhan Özyiğit stated that cancer patients are among the priority group in Covid-19 vaccination and said, "We call all our cancer patients to have their vaccines".

Dr. Gökhan Özyiğit, President of the Turkish Society of Radiation Oncology, told AA correspondent that as oncologists, the biggest concern in this process is that cancer-related deaths and advanced cancer cases will increase significantly in the coming years.

Emphasizing that cancer is a group of diseases whose incidence in society increases as age increases, Özyiğit said, "We know that due to mandatory restrictions, our citizens over the age of 65 experience difficulties in accessing qualified health services such as cancer treatment."

Özyiğit pointed out that the deadlocks in the health system seen in Europe in this process are not seen in Turkey and made the following assessments:

" But some of our patients were afraid of Covid-19, even if they had complaints, to go to hospitals. As a result, we are facing advanced stages due to delayed cancer diagnoses and we are experiencing serious difficulties in our treatment.

In a study conducted by the association, we found that in the first months of the pandemic, the number of patients in radiotherapy centers in our major cities fell significantly. The repercussions of this situation will become clear in the future."

Source: AA