Being younger may not protect cancer patients from severe COVID-19

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-05-10 01:00

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People with cancer are known to have a higher chance of worse COVID-19 illness, but now new research has honed in on how the virus affects certain cancers, treatments and ages. In the large review, patients with cancer were 1.69 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those without cancer. For cancer patients, the highest risk of dying was among those who were younger. Among cancer treatments, chemotherapy was associated with the highest odds of dying from COVID, while endocrine therapy was linked with the lowest.

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conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Liverpool, University College London, ; The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust (UK), University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

Funder: Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Turtle reported receiving personal fees paid to the University of Liverpool from Eisai Ltd. Dr Palmieri reported receiving grants from Pfizer and Daiichi Sankyo as well as personal fees from Pfizer, Roche, Daiichi Sankyo, Novartis, Exact Sciences, Gilead, SeaGen, and Eli Lilly outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported. Funding/Support: Dr Palmieri and Dr Turtle were supported by grant MR/V028979/1 from UK Research Innovation-Department for Health and Social Care COVID-19 Rapid Response Rolling Call. Dr Palmieri was supported by grant C18616/A25153 from the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, by Cancer Research UK, and by the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity and North West Cancer. Ms Khoury was supported by award CR1054 from North West Cancer Research Fund to support a Master of Research. Dr Turtle was supported by contract 75F40120C00085 from the US Food and Drug Administration Medical Countermeasures Initiative, by fellowship 205228/Z/16/Z from the Wellcome Trust, and by grant NIHR200907 from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at the University of Liverpool in partnership with Public Health England, in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford. Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Health Service, the NIHR, the Department of Health, or Public Health England

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