Coronavirus Risk: Cancer Patients Twice Likely To Die From COVID-19, Study Shows

The new research painted a gloomier picture with its findings. It stated that those with lung and blood cancers, as well as cancers that already metastasized, are nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 infection. Metastasized cancer means that it has already spread throughout the body.

More Vulnerable

Researchers studied more than 600 COVID-19 patients, 105 of them suffering from various forms of cancer, in central China. At the end of the study, researchers concluded that cancer patients are at a higher risk of dying, about three times more likely as results show, from coronavirus infection. This is in comparison to COVID-19 patients who had no cancer.

Researchers also found that cancer patients are twice as likely to suffer from severe symptoms resulting from coronavirus infection. They are also more likely to be admitted to the ICU and intubated. The study also showed that COVID-19 patients with lung cancers, blood cancers, and cancer that has metastasized had the highest rate of serious to severe complications.

Scientists who performed the study came from the US, Singapore, and China. They compared cases of 536 COVID-19 patients with no cancer and 105 coronavirus patients suffering from cancer. The patients, located at 14 hospitals in Wuhan, China, all belonged to the same age range. The abstract of the study, which was published Tuesday, in the journal Cancer Discovery, read, “Our results showed COVID-19 patients with cancer had higher risks in all severe outcomes.”

Other Factors

Researchers also found that the form of cancer, the patient’s age, and treatment stage were also factors that could impact the severity of COVID-19 complications. Lung cancer patients, for instance, are already experiencing reduced lung function and are particularly susceptible. Patients suffering from blood cancers such as lymphoma, myeloma, and leukemia, all of which compromise the body’s immune system, are also especially vulnerable.

Treatments are also seen as among the factors that impact a COVID-19 infection, according to researchers. These include surgery and chemotherapy. Although these procedures help fight cancer, they can leave patients at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 as they can suppress the immune system of the body.

A Confirmation

Health experts had suspected early on that cancer patients were more susceptible to succumb from COVID-19 infection. Today, new research has confirmed their suspicion. According to Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, the study is a reflection of what we suspected all along. In an op-ed that Dr. Lichtenfeld wrote in The Washington Post, “Cancer patients are more susceptible to the virus, and that the course of the infection is worse and the outcomes are worse.” Dr. Lichtenfed is not involved in the new study.

Aside from exposing cancer patients to an increased risk of death, the coronavirus pandemic has also delayed cancer-related surgeries of more than 1,000 patients in New York City. Cancer patients who go to hospitals to receive medical care, on the other hand, are at risk of contracting COVID-19 in the process.