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A study conducted at Wuhan Hospital in China has shown that patients with advanced cancer seem to be more vulnerable to COVID-19 than those without.
The multicentre study published in Cancer Discovery last month recruited 105 cancer patients and 536 age-matched non-cancer patients, all confirmed with COVID-19 from 14 hospitals in Wuhan.
Patients with cancer had higher death rates, higher rates of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, higher rates of having at least one severe or critical symptom, and higher chances of requiring invasive mechanical ventilation compared with non-cancer COVID-19 patients. Most severe events were seen in patients with haematological cancer or lung cancer. Patients with metastatic cancer (stage IV) had higher risks for death, ICU admission, having severe conditions, and use of invasive mechanical ventilation.