Chemotherapy May Not Affect Risk Of COVID-19 In Cancer Patients
In the recent past there has been concern on whether individuals with cancer may be at increased risk of COVID-19 and have more severe complications if infected. Due to these uncertainties, many changes have been be made to typical treatment schedules for cancer care. A study published by American Association for Cancer Research was conducted to understand and identify risk factors for developing COVID-19 among cancer patients.
For this study the researchers looked through 1,174 cases of people diagnosed with cancer who were tested for COVID-19 between March and June of 2020 in New York City.
On analysis, they found that people with cancer who were older or obese were more likely to test positive for COVID-19. There was also a higher likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 among minority races and ethnicity.
The results showed that being recently diagnosed with cancer or currently undergoing treatment for cancer were not linked to a higher risk of developing COVID-19. Furthermore, people who were currently being treated with chemotherapy were actually less likely to develop COVID-19 than people diagnosed with cancer who were not receiving chemotherapy.
It is speculated that these numbers are reflective of the more meticulous habits of people receiving chemotherapy -such as strict social distancing, wearing a face mask, and washing hands- than people not receiving chemotherapy.
The findings of this study are encouraging for anyone currently being treated for cancer with chemotherapy, as they may not be at increased risk for becoming infected with COVID-19. Therefore, delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic should be minimized.
References:
Source: Monica F. Chen, Monica T. Coronel, Samuel Pan, Arreum Kim, Jessica Hawley, Gary Schwartz, Katherine Crew. Factors associated with developing COVID-19 among cancer patients in New York City [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer; 2021 Feb 3-5. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2021;27(6_Suppl):Abstract nr S11-02. Source Link: Abstract S11-02: Factors associated with developing COVID-19 among cancer patients in New York City | Clinical Cancer Research (aacrjournals.org)
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