Blood cancer patients face high risk of death from COVID compared to other cancers: Study

A study revealed that COVID-19 patients with blood cancer are more likely to have poor outcomes compared to patients with solid organ tumours. The study published in The Lancet Oncology found that the fatality rate in patients with blood cancer was higher in comparison to patients with other types of cancers.

The study, funded by the University of Birmingham and University of Oxford, compared adult patients with cancer enrolled in the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP) data between March 18 and May 8, with a parallel non-COVID-19 UK cancer control population from the UK Office for National Statistics using its 2017 data.

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Risk associated with increasing age

The study found that blood cancer patients with coronavirus infection are significantly at higher risk of developing severe illness with an odd of 57 per cent compared to patients with other kinds of tumours. "Our data indicate that patients with cancer with different tumour types have variable SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease phenotypes, with notable increased SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility in patients with haematological cancers," the study said. It analysed over 1,000 COVID-19 patients with active cancer. The study also found that the fatality rate among patients with COVID-19 and active cancer was significantly associated with increasing age, especially in those aged 80 years and above. 

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The study discovered that men with active cancer were more likely to contract coronavirus as nearly 57 per cent of the studied patients were male. The study also said that COVID-19 patients with blood cancer were significantly more likely to require high flow oxygen, non-invasive ventilation, intensive care unit admission for ventilation, and have a severe or critical viral infection. Patients who had recent chemotherapy had an increased risk of death during COVID-19-associated hospitalisation, said the study, whose aim was to investigate COVID-19 risk according to tumour subtype and patient demographics in patients with cancer. 

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Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic, which originated from China's Wuhan city, is continuing to wreck havoc across the globe with over 23.8 million confirmed cases and more than 8,15,000 deaths so far. According to figures by Johns Hopkins University, the United States remains the worst affected country in the world with 5.7 million infections and at least 1,78,000 deaths to date. The United States is followed by Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa in terms of reported cases, while in terms of deaths, Brazil, Mexico, India, and the United Kingdom lead the charts after the North American nation. 

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(Image Credit: AP)