According to a new study, blood cancer patients are more vulnerable to being severely affected post contracting COVID-19 compared to the patients of other types of cancer. The study has been conducted by the researchers of the University of Oxford and Birmingham.
The study has been published in Lancet Oncology by the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP). The researchers found that blood cancer patients were 57% more vulnerable to being affected severely if they contract Covid-19.
The University of Oxford, in its study, reported that breast cancer patients have the lowest risk of developing severe complications post contracting Covid-19 virus. Cancer patients over the age of 80 are found to be at the highest risk of death from coronavirus.
Rachel Kerr of Oxford said: “Using these new data (of the recent study) we are working fast to identify trends and correlations, which will enable us to create a tiered risk assessment tool so we can more precisely define the risk to a given cancer patient and move away from a blanket vulnerable policy for all cancer patients, in the event of a second wave of Covid-19.”
Gary Middleton of the University of Birmingham added, “Patients are turning to oncologists and wanting to know exactly what is their risk from Covid-19. This is particularly important as the number of cases in Europe and the UK is still labile”.