Feb. 21 (UPI) -- People with cancer are more likely to suffer serious illness and die from COVID-19 than others infected with the virus, a study published Monday by JAMA Network Open found.
This is true for those undergoing chemotherapy when they are infected, as well as those who are not actively being treated for their cancers, the researchers said.
Those diagnosed with acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome had a two-fold higher risk for death from COVID-19 compared to people without these cancers, the data showed.
Patients with myeloma or plasmacytoma at the time of COVID-19 infection had a more than 50% higher risk of death from the virus, as did those with lung cancer, according to the researchers.
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"Patients with cancer had poorer COVID-19 outcomes than other individuals with COVID-19," researchers from multiple academic hospitals in England wrote.
"Such difference in outcome may be associated with [patient] age, sex, comorbidities and cancer subtype rather than anticancer treatments," they said.
Comorbidities are other, often chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease or Type 2 diabetes, that may affect a person's overall health.
The findings are based on an analysis of more than 2,500 adults with cancer from 69 hospitals in Britain, the researchers said.
The study was conducted in 2020, meaning all participants had been infected with earlier variants of the virus and none of them were vaccinated.
Those with blood and bone marrow cancers such as leukemias, myelodysplastic syndrome, myeloma and plasmacytoma were at higher risk for death from COVID-19 than others infected with the virus, they said.
Having lung cancer also increased a person's risk for death from COVID-19, which as a respiratory virus has significant effect on lung health, researchers said.
Patients who had undergone chemotherapy for their cancers within four weeks of infection were not at higher risk for death from the virus than others with cancer, they said.
However, those receiving immunotherapy, a type of cancer drug treatment that is designed to boost the immune system to help the body fight off the disease and slow tumor growth, at the time of COVID-19 infection had a 50% lower risk for death, the data showed.
Earlier studies have suggested that the currently available COVID-19 vaccines may provide less protection for certain cancer patients, and that they are higher risk for life-threatening infection even after vaccination.
"Recent chemotherapy was not associated with all-cause mortality" or death, the researchers said. "Recent immunotherapy was associated with less severe COVID-19 symptoms and lower mortality."
