How COVID-19 Affects Cancer Patients

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2025 | Viewed by 3915

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Department of Medical and Surgical Science and Advanced Technologies "G.F. Ingrassia", University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Interests: environmental health; environmental markers of risk and the use of integrated tools for environmental risk assessment; protecting the health of the community; food hygiene; health education; public health
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Dear Colleagues,

The effects of Covid-19 vary according to the patients’ characteristics and tumor type.

Older patients and those with hematological diseases are most at risk. In patients with blood cancers, COVID-19 has a greater impact and degree of lethality. Furthermore, patients with lung and prostate cancer appear to be at a reduced risk of suffering from COVID-19 infection and dying from it, while women with breast and gynecological cancers are those with the most minor risk of infection.

Novel research in this area of interest will be able to explain the variation in the risks associated with COVID-19 based on the characteristics and tumor type of cancer patients.

Dr. Maria Fiore
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • pandemic
  • cancer
  • impact
  • incidence
  • mortality
  • lethality
  • disparities
  • gender

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

7 pages, 513 KiB  
Communication
COVID-19 and Cancer Detection in Russia
by Andrey Sudarikov
Cancers 2024, 16(9), 1673; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16091673 - 26 Apr 2024
Viewed by 444
Abstract
Overdiagnosis, associated with mass testing in healthy populations, is a significant issue for breast, prostate, renal, and thyroid cancers. During the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the intensity of cancer screening was expected to go down. In this study, we analyzed the [...] Read more.
Overdiagnosis, associated with mass testing in healthy populations, is a significant issue for breast, prostate, renal, and thyroid cancers. During the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the intensity of cancer screening was expected to go down. In this study, we analyzed the impact of the expected reduction in screening intensity on morbidity and mortality from certain malignancies. Cumulative data from the Russian National Cancer Registry available from 2000 to 2022 were analyzed. It was noted that there has been no noticeable effect of the COVID-19 lockdowns on mortality rates from breast, prostate, renal, or thyroid cancers. At the same time, the detectable incidence decreased markedly in 2020 at the time of the lockdowns and then returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. At the moment, there is no sufficient reason to believe that skipping screening tests in 2020 could have any impact on breast, prostate, renal, or thyroid cancer mortality two years later (2022). The data presented further confirm that the overdiagnosis of these types of malignancies is caused by widespread screening among a generally healthy population. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue How COVID-19 Affects Cancer Patients)
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12 pages, 1182 KiB  
Article
Association of COVID-19 and Lung Cancer: Short-Term and Long-Term Interactions
by Ying-Long Peng, Zi-Yan Wang, Ri-Wei Zhong, Shi-Qi Mei, Jia-Qi Liu, Li-Bo Tang, Zhi Guo, Zi-Rui Ren, Lv Wu, Yu Deng, Zhi-Hong Chen, Qing Zhou and Chong-Rui Xu
Cancers 2024, 16(2), 304; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16020304 - 11 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1151
Abstract
Background: COVID-19 has been ravaging the globe for more than three years. Due to systemic immunosuppression of anti-tumor therapy, application of chemotherapy and adverse effects of surgery, the short- and long-term prognosis of cancer patients to COVID-19 are of significant concern. Method [...] Read more.
Background: COVID-19 has been ravaging the globe for more than three years. Due to systemic immunosuppression of anti-tumor therapy, application of chemotherapy and adverse effects of surgery, the short- and long-term prognosis of cancer patients to COVID-19 are of significant concern. Method: This research included three parts of data. The first part of the data came from the public database that covered Veneto residents. The second part of the data included participants in Guangzhou. The third part of the data was used for MR analysis. We assessed the associations by logistic, linear or Cox regression when appropriate. Result: Lung cancer patients with COVID-19 had shorter progression-free survival (PFS) after COVID-19 (Model II: HR: 3.28, 95% CI: 1.6~6.72; Model III: HR: 3.39, 95% CI: 1.45~7.95), compared with lung cancer patients without COVID-19. Targeted therapy patients recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection more quickly (Model I: β: −0.58, 95% CI: −0.75~−0.41; Model II: β: −0.59, 95% CI: −0.76~−0.41; Model III: β: −0.57; 95% CI: −0.75~−0.40). Conclusions: PFS in lung cancer patients is shortened by COVID-19. The outcome of COVID-19 in lung cancer patients was not significantly different from that of the healthy population. In lung cancer patients, targeted therapy patients had a better outcome of COVID-19, while chemotherapy patients had the worst. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue How COVID-19 Affects Cancer Patients)
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13 pages, 1453 KiB  
Article
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cancer Mortality in Pennsylvania: A Retrospective Study with Geospatial Analysis
by Savanna G. Ledford, Fritz Kessler, Jennifer L. Moss, Ming Wang and Eugene J. Lengerich
Cancers 2023, 15(19), 4788; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15194788 - 29 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1002
Abstract
Background. We sought to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer mortality and identify associated factors in Pennsylvania. Methods. The retrospective study analyzed cross-sectional cancer mortality data from CDC WONDER for 2015 through 2020 for Pennsylvania and its 67 counties. The [...] Read more.
Background. We sought to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer mortality and identify associated factors in Pennsylvania. Methods. The retrospective study analyzed cross-sectional cancer mortality data from CDC WONDER for 2015 through 2020 for Pennsylvania and its 67 counties. The spatial distributions of 2019, 2020, and percentage change in age-adjusted mortality rates by county were analyzed via choropleth maps and spatial autocorrelation. A Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to analyze whether the rates differed between 2019 and 2020. Quasi-Poisson and geographically weighted regression at the county level were used to assess the association between the 2019 rates, sex (percent female), race (percent non-White), ethnicity (percent Hispanic/Latino), rural–urban continuum codes, and socioeconomic status with the 2020 rates. Results. At the state level, the rate in 2020 did not reflect the declining annual trend (−2.7 per 100,000) in the rate since 2015. Twenty-six counties had an increase in the rate in 2020. Of the factors examined, the 2019 rates were positively associated with the 2020 rates, and the impact of sociodemographic and geographic factors on the 2020 rates varied by county. Conclusions. In Pennsylvania, the 2020 cancer mortality rates did not decline as much as reported before the COVID-19 pandemic. The top five cancer types by rate were the same type for 2019 and 2020. Future cancer control efforts may need to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trends and geospatial distribution in cancer mortality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue How COVID-19 Affects Cancer Patients)
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13 pages, 995 KiB  
Article
Outcomes of Liver Cancer Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery after Recovering from Mild SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study
by Yizhou Wang, Junyong Ma, Yali Wu, Shichao Zhang, Xifeng Li, Yong Xia, Zhenlin Yan, Jian Liu, Feng Shen and Xiaofeng Zhang
Cancers 2023, 15(17), 4254; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15174254 - 25 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 942
Abstract
With the emergence of new virus variants, limited data are available on the impact of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection on surgery outcomes in cancer patients who have been widely vaccinated. This study aimed to determine whether undergoing hepatectomy poses a higher risk of postoperative [...] Read more.
With the emergence of new virus variants, limited data are available on the impact of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection on surgery outcomes in cancer patients who have been widely vaccinated. This study aimed to determine whether undergoing hepatectomy poses a higher risk of postoperative complications for liver cancer patients who have had mild Omicron infection before surgery. A propensity-matched cohort study was conducted at a tertiary liver center from 8 October 2022 to 13 January 2023. In total, 238 liver cancer patients who underwent hepatectomy were included, with 57 (23.9%) recovering from preoperative SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection and 190 (79.8%) receiving COVID-19 vaccination. Pre- and post-matching, there was no significant difference in the occurrence of postoperative outcomes between preoperative COVID-19 recovered patients and COVID-19 negative patients. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the COVID-19 status was not associated with postoperative major pulmonary and cardiac complications. However, preexisting comorbidities (odds ratio [OR], 4.645; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.295–16.667), laparotomy (OR, 10.572; 95% CI, 1.220–91.585), and COVID-19 unvaccinated (OR, 5.408; 95% CI, 1.489–19.633) had increased odds of major complications related to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, liver cancer patients who have recovered from preoperative COVID-19 do not face an increased risk of postoperative complications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue How COVID-19 Affects Cancer Patients)
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