Patients with certain cancers are nearly three times as likely to die of covid-19, study says

[Mike 03]

Washington Post
By Laurie McGinley
April 28, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. MST

Those with blood or lung malignancies, or tumors that have spread throughout the body, were at highest risk of complications and death.

Cancer patients — especially those with blood or lung malignancies, or tumors that have spread throughout the body — have a higher risk of death or other severe complications from covid-19 compared with those without cancer, according to a study published Tuesday.

The study, which involved 14 hospitals in Hubei province in central China, where the pandemic emerged, included 105 cancer patients and 536 non-cancer patients of the same age — all of whom had covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The co-authors, from China, Singapore and the United States, found that cancer patients who developed covid-19 had nearly a threefold higher death rate from the virus than the 2 to 3 percent rate estimated for the general population. Cancer patients also were more likely to experience “severe events,” such as being admitted to intensive care units and needing mechanical ventilation, than people without cancer. Risk factors included not just age, but also the kind of cancer, the stage and the treatment.

“These findings suggest that patients with cancer are a much more vulnerable population in the current covid-19 outbreak,” the authors concluded.

Read more at link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/28/coronavirus-cancer-deathrates/

WaPo has a paywall, but you can read a certain number of articles for free.

[Kali]

1. that one is kind of a no-shit-sherlock finding isn't it?

the comparison should be people with those cancers who do and don't get the virus too. of course people with those cancers have a higher risk of death than people without them.

[crickets]

2. FYI all of WaPo's coronavirus coverage is available with no paywall.

Thanks for posting the article, Mike!