Is COVID-19 more dangerous for people with blood cancer

Is COVID-19 more dangerous for people with blood cancer

In this unfortunate time of Coronavirus, all of us have to be careful, get vaccinated, and take extra care. However, those of us who live with terminal or long term diseases like cancer have to be even more vigilant than others because of much greater risk of exposure and far poorer outcomes if we were to get
infected by the virus. Having cancer, and going through certain treatments for cancer can greatly suppress the body’s immune system, and this side effect in particular is very worrisome in any prospective fight against Covid-19.

Recent research findings from a study conducted in the UK on cancer patients who had COVID-19 revealed that when it came to this particular virus, all cancers did not carry
the same risks. Particularly, patients who had blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma were found to be more prone to facing severe cases of COVID-19, and leukemia patients in particular were found to be at more than twice the odds of dying from the virus, as suggested by findings by the U.K. Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP).

From March; the study compared recorded data from 1,044 cancer patients who had COVID-19 to about 145,000 cancer patients who didn’t have it. After taking factors like age, sex and tumor type into consideration, the investigators found:
• Patients who had blood cancer were at a fifty seven percent higher risk of getting a severe case of COVID-19 compared to patients with other cancer types.
• Blood cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy fairly recently were also at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19.
• Patients who had leukemia were at a “significantly increased case-fatality rate.”
• Patients above 80 had the greatest odds of succumbing to the virus.
• However, patients who also had prostate cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer and cancers of the female reproductive system seemed to be at far lower risk of getting infected or dying from COVID-19.

In theory those who have blood cancer could be harder hit by COVID-19, since hematological malignancies can cause abnormalities with bone marrow—the spongy tissue inside the bones that makes white and red blood cells and platelets. Without white blood cells, the ability to fight infections also decreases. In the case of blood cancers ‘The Lancet Oncology’ has reported cytotoxic treatments like chemotherapy and radiation reduce the number of white blood cells, potentially putting blood cancer patients’ at greater risk of infection.