In a new study, researchers found that a cancer drug may cure respiratory distress in COVID-19 patients.
The research was conducted by a team at Marburg University Hospital.
Although the spreading SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus usually causes only mild respiratory symptoms, the COVID-19 disease progresses so severely in around five percent of those affected that acute respiratory distress can occur.
In the study, the patient is a 65-year-old woman without pre-existing conditions who were admitted to the hospital for progressive shortness of breath and fever.
Her shortness of breath worsened so rapidly that she had to be intubated to receive artificial ventilation three hours after admission.
A genetic test confirmed she was infected with SARS-CoV-2. The patient’s overall prognosis was assessed as very poor due to extensive organ damage.
The team knew from Chinese publications that patients with a severe and even fatal course of the disease are characterized by a so-called cytokine storm.
During a cytokine storm, the body is flooded with substances that stimulate the immune system.
This overreaction of the body’s own defense system damages the tissue—making it all the easier for the invading virus to spread.
The team suspected that the patient might respond to ruxolitinib, a drug originally used in cancer treatment. It inhibits enzymes in the body involved in excessive inflammatory reactions.
They found the condition of the Marburg University Medicine patient did improve after she received ruxolitinib.
The treatment team noted the patient’s condition became stable as well as rapid improvement in respiration and heart function.
They say this course of treatment was remarkable compared to that in other patients,” Wiesmann emphasizes.
The patient was gradually weaned from the ventilator starting on the tenth day of her hospital stay. Virus replication was also reduced during the administration of the cancer drug.
Apparently, the success of the treatment was not an isolated case. The team in Marburg also administered the cancer drug to several other patients to control a severe course of the disease.
A team at Schwarzwald-Baar Hospital has also reported the successful use of the immune inhibitor, although in less severe cases.
One author of the study is Dr. Thomas Wiesmann in the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care at Marburg University Hospital.
The study is published in Leukemia.
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