New research suggests that COVID-19 may delay cancer treatments for some patients, who may have weakened immune systems while undergoing cancer treatment.
“We propose that aggressive measures be undertaken to reduce frequency of hospital visits of patients with cancer during a viral epidemic going forward,” wrote a team led by Dr. Conghua Xie, of the department of radiation and medical oncology at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.
The research, which focused on 12 cancer patients treated at the hospital in January and February, was published March 25 in the journal JAMA Oncology.
It’s long been understood that cancer, as well as its therapies, have the unfortunate side effect of weakening a patient’s immune system. That can leave a patient more vulnerable to infectious illness, including COVID-19.
