In a study from the University of Texas and elsewhere, scientists found more than one in two cancer patients at a US cancer center experienced symptoms of long COVID-19 for more than six months after initial infection.
The findings are comparable to the reported incidence of long COVID-19 in the general population but also show that women undergoing cancer treatment seem at higher risk than men.
In the general population, reports of the prevalence of long COVID-19 vary from 10% to 87%, with symptoms persisting beyond 30 days in patients who had severe initial COVID-19 symptoms or were hospitalized.
In the study, the team identified patients receiving care at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
They were diagnosed with COVID-19 and followed their progress for up to 14 months via remote symptom monitoring and their usual hospital visits.
Long COVID-19 was defined as COVID-19-related symptoms persisting beyond 30 days of diagnosis or the emergence of new COVID-19 symptoms.
The team collected data for 312 cancer patients, of whom 188 (60%) developed long COVID-19.
They found those who had relapsed or had treatment-resistant cancer at baseline, or those who had more severe acute COVID-19 infections, were less likely to develop long COVID-19.
The team also found that female cancer patients had a higher rate of long COVID-19 compared with male cancer patients (63% versus 51%).
There was otherwise no difference in the characteristics of patients who developed long COVID-19 and those who did not—risk factors such as depleted white blood cells, needing oxygen, being hospitalized for COVID-19 or multi-organ failure were similar in both groups.
The most common long COVID-19 symptoms were fatigue, sleep disturbances, muscle pain, and GI symptoms.
The team also found that patients with high blood pressure (BP) were less likely to develop long COVID-19.
This was surprising given that high BP is a known risk factor for more severe acute COVID-19, but a similar finding was also seen in another study of long-COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients.
The link between BP and the risk of severe acute COVID-19 is thought to be due to the binding of the COVID-19 spike protein to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), the target of many BP-lowering drugs.
These findings might rule out this mechanism is important for the development of long COVID-19.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that whole grain foods could help increase longevity, and vitamin D supplements strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about COVID, please see recent studies about new evidence on rare blood clots after COVID-19 vaccination, and results showing zinc could help reduce COVID-19 infection risk.
The study was conducted by Anne-Marie Chaftari et al and published in eLife.
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