People who have survived cancer as children may be at a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 infection—even decades after their cancer diagnosis, according to results published by Louro et al in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
Thanks to medical advances, more and more children are surviving cancer. However, even long after their treatment has ended, health risks may remain. In a recent registry study, researchers investigated how adult childhood cancer survivors in Sweden and Denmark were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study included more than 13,000 people who had been diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20 and who were at least 20 years old when the pandemic began. They were compared with both siblings and randomly selected individuals from the population of the same gender and year of birth with no cancer history.
Childhood cancer survivors had a lower risk of contracting COVID-19 but were 58% more likely to develop severe disease if they did become infected, according to the investigators. Severe COVID-19 infection was defined as the patient receiving in-hospital care, intensive care, or experiencing death related to the infection.
”It is important to understand that even though these individuals were not infected more often, the consequences were more serious when they did become ill,” explained the first study author Javier Louro, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet.
The differences in risk were particularly clear during periods of high transmission, such as when new virus variants such as Alpha and Omicron spread rapidly. In Sweden, where pandemic management was based more on recommendations than restrictions, the increase in risk was greater than in Denmark, which introduced early and strict measures.
”Our results suggest that childhood cancer survivors should be considered a risk group in future pandemics or other health crises. This could involve prioritizing them for vaccination or offering special protection during periods of high transmission,” concluded Dr. Louro.
Disclosure: The study was conducted in collaboration with the Danish Cancer Institute. The study was funded by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund and the Swedish Research Council. For full disclosures of the study authors, visit thelancet.com.
