Coronavirus: What cancer
patients need to know
Advice for cancer patients, survivors and caregivers on who’s most at risk for COVID-19 and what you can do to stay healthy
MARCH 6, 2020 • BY DIANE MAPES / FRED HUTCH NEWS SERVICE
“The early data from China, and reports from the ground in Italy and other sites of local transmission is that our cancer patients are going to be at increased risk,” said Dr. Steve Pergam, a clinical and infectious disease researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Who’s most at risk?
“Patients with hematologic [blood] malignancies we believe will have the biggest risk,” he said. “Also, patients who are in active chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant patients. Those are the ones with the most profound immune deficits.”
What else should cancer patients and survivors keep in mind as they navigate yet another new normal, in this case the introduction of a completely novel viral pandemic to the human race?
We turned to our cancer and infectious disease experts for answers. Wash your hands and read on.
The spread of COVID-19 across the U.S. is looking increasingly likely, even as researchers and public health officials work to distribute information, ramp up testing and enact measures to slow and eventually stop this new coronavirus. Not everyone will get sick. But like the flu virus, there are definitely people who are more at risk. With COVID-19, people who are older (particularly over 70) and people with underlying health conditions, such as chronic lung disease (think COPD), cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cancer appear to be at higher risk for major complications.
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