Coronavirus and Cancer

According to researches, cancer patients have an increased risk of severe illness and mortality due to COVID 19. Individuals in the earlier stages of cancer can fight Covid infection as a healthy individual.

According to the reports in China, people of older ages who have a compromised immune system with an underlying health condition are more susceptible to coronavirus complications. The studies showed that the mortality rate was double the normal rate (6% higher) than normal among cancer patients.

Incidence of covid-19 among the African population

COVID-19 is more susceptible to low-income countries as Africa. Patients who have cancer in such countries are even more prone to deaths and complications. Until now, more than 11 million patients are suffering from coronavirus. A large population is already suffering from cancer, which can increase the death rates collectively due to COVID and cancer.

How cancer weakens the immune system?

The use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy usually leads to neutropenia- a temporary decrease in the function of the immune system to fight with any infection. Individuals who are receiving stem cell transplants, for example, tend to have chemotherapy to kill the existing cells, so that they can be replaced with the new ones.

In other cases, as immunotherapies, these treatments can trigger the excessive response from the immune system, which can lead to inflammation in the body.

The immune system protects the body against illnesses. People suffering from diseases like cancer have less ability to cope with infections as cancer treatments decrease the formation of white blood cells from bone marrow, which are a significant part of the immune system.

The reason why the mortality rate may be higher in cancer patients is due to weakness in immunity to fight coronavirus. Innate immunity is the first line of defence against covid-19 infection.

COVID-19 mortality and Cancer:

According to research by Tongji Medical College, China, out of 28 patients, 7 had lung cancer, and the rest of them were suffering from other cancers. These patients contracted infections from the hospital environment. Out of these patients, 10 patients needed mechanical ventilators, and 8 of them died due to ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome).

This research showed the mortality rate of 29% among cancer patients. Most of these patients were receiving chemotherapy treatment for their cancer.

In contrast, according to another research by the National Tumor Institute in Naples, patients who were receiving immunotherapy had protection against coronavirus. These patients were asymptomatic and had an immediate recovery from the infection.

According to cancer specialists, cancer patients deteriorate more quickly than individuals without cancer. These patients are more likely to have:

34% more chances to develop critical illnesses
19% more chances to admit in ICU of hospitals
10% more chances to need a ventilator for respiration
5-11% more chance to die with COVID-19 infection.

Which types of cancers are more dangerous for COVID-19 infection?

Individuals suffering from lung cancer, blood cancer and metastatic or active cancer have more chances to suffer complications from COVID-19 infections. About half of lung cancer and two-thirds of blood cancer patients had complaints of these complications. Among these patients, 18% of patients had died, and 18% of patients were on ventilators. Symptoms of COVID infection can overlap with the symptoms of lung cancer, which can make it more challenging to diagnose and treat. Therefore, there is an increasing trend in mortality rate due to lung cancer among coronavirus patients.

In the case of blood cancer, patients with immunosuppression had ten times more risk of deaths or complications.

22% of these patients were on ventilators, and 33% of patients died.

People who have metastatic cancer have six times more chances of mortality and complications due to coronavirus infections.

People who suffered from breast, prostate, or cervix cancer, in earlier stages, had mortality rates the same as healthy individuals.

Patients who underwent surgeries in the last four days also had a high risk of mortalities and complications.

COVID-19 and cancer treatments:

Cancer is a set of certain diseases, and its prognosis depends upon the diagnosis timing and treatment type.

If you start the treatment earlier, you can recover earlier. As the pandemic started, it decreased the cancer diagnosis due to over demand for coronavirus testing. But the actual cases of cancers did not drop. These cancers can come up at later stages with even worse conditions. In such cases, the prognosis of the disease will be slow.

Most of the hospitals are deprioritizing the elective treatments for cancer to reserve COVID patients’ clinical capacity. In this era of the pandemic, the focus is to fight COVID-19.

Some of the cancer patients are receiving mild radiotherapy or chemotherapy. While in other cases, operations for the removal of tumors and lumps have been put on hold.

COVID-19 is playing a vital role in:

Delaying the detection of cancer
Delaying the optimal or suboptimal care for cancer patients
Increasing the risks of poor prognosis in cancer patients

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