Feb. 21 (UPI) —<\/span> People with cancer are more likely to suffer serious illness and die from COVID-19 than others infected with the virus, a study published Monday by JAMA Network Open found.<\/p>\n This is true for those undergoing chemotherapy when they are infected, as well as those who are not actively being treated for their cancers, the researchers said.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Those diagnosed with acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome had a two-fold higher risk for death from COVID-19 compared to people without these cancers, the data showed.<\/p>\n Patients with myeloma or plasmacytoma at the time of COVID-19 infection had a more than 50% higher risk of death from the virus, as did those with lung cancer, according to the researchers.\n<\/p>\n “Patients with cancer had poorer COVID-19 outcomes than other individuals with COVID-19,” researchers from multiple academic hospitals in England wrote.<\/p>\n “Such difference in outcome may be associated with [patient] age, sex, comorbidities and cancer subtype rather than anticancer treatments,” they said.<\/p>\n Comorbidities are other, often chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease or Type 2 diabetes, that may affect a person’s overall health.\n<\/p>\n The findings are based on an analysis of more than 2,500 adults with cancer from 69 hospitals in Britain, the researchers said.\n<\/p>\n The study was conducted in 2020, meaning all participants had been infected with earlier variants of the virus and none of them were vaccinated.<\/p>\n Those with blood and bone marrow cancers such as leukemias, myelodysplastic syndrome, myeloma and plasmacytoma were at higher risk for death from COVID-19 than others infected with the virus, they said.\n<\/p>\n Having lung cancer also increased a person’s risk for death from COVID-19, which as a respiratory virus has significant effect on lung health, researchers said.<\/p>\n Patients who had undergone chemotherapy for their cancers within four weeks of infection were not at higher risk for death from the virus than others with cancer, they said.<\/p>\n However, those receiving immunotherapy, a type of cancer drug treatment that is designed to boost the immune system to help the body fight off the disease and slow tumor growth, at the time of COVID-19 infection had a 50% lower risk for death, the data showed.<\/p>\n Earlier studies have suggested that the currently available COVID-19 vaccines may provide less protection for certain cancer patients, and that they are higher risk for life-threatening infection even after vaccination.<\/p>\n “Recent chemotherapy was not associated with all-cause mortality” or death, the researchers said. “Recent immunotherapy was associated with less severe COVID-19 symptoms and lower mortality.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cancer patients may be at higher risk for death from COVID-19, whether or not they are receiving chemotherapy at the time of their infection, a new study has found. Photo by Klbz\/Pixabay Feb. 21 (UPI) — People with cancer are more likely to suffer serious illness and die from COVID-19 than others infected with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":999126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[467,261,371,176,177,1724,425,28],"class_list":["post-999125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-covid19","tag-death","tag-finds","tag-higher","tag-patients","tag-risk","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Cancer](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Cancer-patients-at-higher-risk-for-death-from-COVID-19-study-finds.jpg\" "\\"Cancer")
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\n<\/div>\nCancer patients may be at higher risk for death from COVID-19, whether or not they are receiving chemotherapy at the time of their infection, a new study has found. Photo by Klbz\/Pixabay<\/div>\n\n