Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Aug 15;17(3):519-527.
doi: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2020.0289.

COVID-19 in cancer patients: risk, clinical features, and management

Cuiwei Liu  1   2 , Yanxia Zhao  1 , Derick Okwan-Duodu  3   4 , Reva Basho  5 , Xiaojiang Cui  2
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 in cancer patients: risk, clinical features, and management

Cuiwei Liu et al. Cancer Biol Med. .

Abstract

A novel coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across the world, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) a public health emergency of international concern. Cancer patients are regarded as a highly vulnerable population to SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of more severe COVID-19 symptoms, which is possibly due to the systemic immunosuppressive state caused directly by tumor growth and indirectly by effects of anticancer treatment. Currently, much effort has been directed toward studying the pathogenesis and treatment of COVID-19, but the risk profiles, prognoses, and treatment outcomes in cancer patients remain unclear. Based on the current literature, we summarize the risk profiles, clinical and biochemical characteristics, and therapy outcomes of COVID-19 infections in cancer patients. The challenges in the clinical care of cancer patients with COVID-19 are discussed. The goal of this review is to stimulate research to better understand the biological impact and prognoses of COVID-19 infections in cancer patients, thus facilitating improvement of the clinical management of these patients.

Keywords: Anti-viral therapy; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; anti-cancer treatment; immunotherapy; inflammation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Liang W, Guan W, Chen R, Wang W, Li J, Xu K, et al. Cancer patients in SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide analysis in China. Lancet Oncol. 2020;21:335–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu Z, McGoogan JM. Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in china: summary of a report of 72314 cases from the Chinese center for disease control and prevention. JAMA. 2020;323:1239–42. - PubMed
    1. Guan W-J, Ni Z-Y, Hu Y, Liang W-H, Ou C-Q, He J-X, et al. Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1708–20. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, Qu J, Gong F, Han Y, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395:507–13. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang L, Zhu F, Xie L, Wang C, Wang J, Chen R, et al. Clinical characteristics of COVID-19-infected cancer patients: a retrospective case study in three hospitals within Wuhan, China. Ann Oncol. 2020;31:894–901. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms