COVID-19 in the Cancer Patient
Patients with cancer may be at higher risk for COVID-19 disease.
Oncology patients are often recalled to the hospital and healthcare
facilities for both treatment and monitoring. They are also more
susceptible to infection because of systemic immunosuppression caused by
the malignancy and anticancer therapies, such as surgery, radiotherapy,
chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. A retrospective review of oncology
patients admitted to a hospital in Wuhan, China from December 30, 2019
to February 17, 2020 found that patients with cancer harbored a
significantly higher risk of COVID-19 (OR, 2.31; 95% CI 1.89-3.02)
compared with the community.12 Although current case
numbers within our head and neck oncology patients remain low, ongoing
community transmission and the vulnerability of our patient population
suggests that this may not remain static. Not only are cancer patients
more likely to become infected, but they are also more likely to have
severe complications from COVID-19. Early published reports from China
on outcomes of oncology patients with the disease indicated a 3.5 times
higher risk of requiring mechanical ventilation, ICU admission, or death
compared to patients without cancer.13 A review of
over 72,000 COVID-19 cases in Wuhan showed a case fatality rate of 5.6%
for cancer patients compared to 2.3% for the overall
population.14