This type of cancer increases severity of COVID-19 by 60 per cent

Several conditions have been reported to increase the severity of COVID-19 infection. These conditions include obesity, diabetes, hypertension and age over 60 to name a few.

New research reveals that a specific type of cancer can increase the severity of coronavirus by almost 60 per cent. According to the recent study done in August 2020 by a team of researchers at the University of Birmingham, people suffering from hematologic malignancies - cancers affecting the blood bone marrow and lymph nodes are at 57 per cent higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection than those with solid tumour-based cancers.

The study
The study was published in The Lancet in which 1,044 adults participated between March 18 and May 8, 2020. 319 people died during the course of the study. The study found that among those with blood or bone marrow cancers, leukaemia patients were most likely to develop severe COVID complications and were twice as more likely to die from COVID than the general population.

Among patients with hematologic malignancies, people who recently had their chemotherapy were twice more likely to die during hospitalisation for COVID infection than other general population.

 
On the other hand, people with cancer presenting solid organ tumors with recent chemotherapy were not associated with increased death risk due to COVID.

The other factors that affected the patient's risk of death were age and sex. Like male cancer patients were more at risk of death during the course of the study than female patients. The risk increased even more for people above the age of 59.

 
Though the age factor has proven to be true for coronavirus in general, regardless of the fact that the patient has cancer or not. Other researchers have also shown that COVID-19 can be more fatal in men, particularly older adults.