Cancer Patients May Not Have Higher COVID-19 Risk: Study

Cancer patients may not be associated with the broad range of at-risk groups of people suffering from COVID-19. This study was conducted by researchers at Rambam Medical Center and the Technion. The findings were published in Cancers. // The research was led by Professor Yuval Shaked, head of the Rappaport - Technion Integrated Cancer Center (R-TICC) and Professor Irit Ben Aharon, director of the Division of Oncology at Rambam and principal investigator at the R-TICC, in collaboration with Dr. Tal Goshen-Lago, head of the Translational Research Division of Oncology at Rambam.

Cancer patients were afraid to seek treatment for fear of contracting the coronavirus in hospitals, and in some countries, guidelines were issued for postponing oncology treatments in certain situations.

The study included 271 participants, including 164 cancer patients, who came to the Rambam Medical Center to receive ongoing treatment for their disease, and a control group of 107 healthy employees among the medical staff.

The study was conducted between March and June 2020, the participants underwent blood tests at three different times to examine changes in the immune system's profile. The test monitored three antibodies - IgG, IgM, and IgA - that represent antibody formation at different virus exposure times.

“We were surprised to find that cancer patients and health subjects developed antibodies at similar rates,” said Prof. Ben Aharon. "2.4% of cancer patients who participated in the study and 1.9% of participants in the healthy control group developed antibodies for the coronavirus and all were asymptomatic. Moreover, throughout the entire study period, no symptomatic coronavirus patients were detected in the study population and among the general population of our oncology patients."

According to Prof. Ben Aharon, the CyTOF technology was used to map immune system cells, and a significant difference was found between the immune profile of cancer patients who were positive for coronavirus antibodies and the immune profile of the positive staff members.

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"In the general population and in the medical staff that participated in the study, the virus reduces the rate of myeloid cells by about 90%; in cancer patients, however, it reduces them by only 50%. This fact gives cancer patients relative protection.”

Source-Medindia