Anyone WHO is sick of cancer may have a higher risk of infection with the new coronavirus, and once you have contracted the infection a greater chance to encounter a clinical course more severe. What was already speculated, it is now confirmed by the first study conducted on patients with cancer resident in the provinces of china where is developed the first outbreak of the epidemic. The survey, conducted by researchers at the chinese university of Guangzhou, published on the Lancet Oncology not only looks at the most risk, but proposes a strategy to reduce it. The study The authors analyzed 1590 cases of Covid-19 laboratory-confirmed that they have collected from 575 hospitals distributed in 31 provinces: 18 of them were cancer patients. A number – they said – which seems to be higher (in percentage of course) on the incidence of cancer in the chinese population overall. Of the 18 patients with cancer-positive Covid-19, five were suffering from lung cancer (28%), the type of tumor is more frequent in this study. 25% had had chemotherapy or had been subjected to surgery in the last month.
cancer patients were admitted to icu more often, and have developed complications, in particular in the case of chemo and surgery recently. They were also older and had more often a history of smoking, and difficulty breathing. The expected results, “The study says that the one who has the cancer may have a higher risk of getting Covid-19 with respect to the other. And indicates that for these patients, the time course of infection is more severe. This is expected results, which we expected, in short. The merit of this study is to be the first information on the relationship of tumors and coronavirus, although on a reduced sample of patients with cancer,” says Saverio Cinieri, president-elect, Aiom and director of medical Oncology and Breast unit of the Hospital ‘ Perrino”, Brindisi. “Patients with cancer – resumes Cinieri – are people who are more fragile, have a the immune system less effective to the disease and the side effects of therapies (even if not all treatments have an immunosuppressive effect), and for this reason have a higher risk to meet both the infections and their complications. All the infections. And this is the reason why Aiom 2014 recommends that cancer patients and their family members to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu”. But what of the patients healed from cancer or those with a stabilized disease? “For patients healed, for those whose disease is chronically and for those in good general health, and in the absence of treatment, the risk of contracting the Covid-19 is the same as that of the normal population. The indication for them is to adopt the measures of hygienic and social, controlled, as all”. The strategies Here are, by the way of the action. The authors of the chinese study have listed three strategies for cancer patients in this period of the epidemic by coronavirus, effective – say – to combat this infection, and also other possible serious infections in the future.
The first: to postpone the chemotherapy adjuvants and interventions in endemic areas when the situation of the patient is stable. The second: provide for more stringent provisions in the field of personal protection for cancer patients. The third: to take into account surveillance or more intensive treatments when patients with cancer have an infection with Sars-CoV-2, especially if elderly or with multiple medical conditions. “This, in principle, you are already doing, collaborating with the departments of prevention of local health agencies and with colleagues anesthetist, pulmonologist, and infectious disease”, resumes Cinieri. Keep it at the end by saying “we oncologists are aware that they are not good news for patients. We understand their concerns, but we are in the presence of a new virus and we’re learning to fight back. There are many laboratories in the world are working to develop a vaccine. In the meantime, be taken all of the precautions. And don’t panic, because science moves forward always, and quick steps, and a brick after another, we will build an embankment against this new infection. Our patients need to know”.
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