On Aug. 24, 2020, a published study led by the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham found that, compared to other cancers, patients with blood cancers are more vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. As access to treatment remains of upmost importance, this information will help clinicians to guide patients to ensure they can have therapy safely and successfully during this time.

The study, published in Lancet Oncology by the United Kingdom Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project, found that blood cancer patients were particularly at risk with 57% higher odds of severe disease if they contract COVID-19. This was when compared to other cancer patients, such as breast cancer, which was shown to have the lowest risk overall.

In line with what we already know about the coronavirus pandemic, age was shown to play a factor in the overall outcome, with cancer patients over the age of 80 found to have the highest frequency of fatality.

As COVID-19 spread globally in early 2020, cancer patients were identified as a sub-group who were potentially at an increased risk of infection of COVID-19 and of potentially suffering more serious disease consequences. It was this concern that led to the formation of the national UKCCMP project.

As cancer treatments need to carry on during the pandemic, this study gives clinicians and patients important information to make informed decisions about that treatment. The production of risk tables for different cancer types will let doctors discuss the risks and benefits with patients, so that together they can pick the best way to treat each person’s cancer. The study also gives an evidence base from which hospitals and other healthcare providers can design measures to ensure that they maintain access to life-saving treatments as safely as possible.

Since March more than 60 cancer centres across the UK have entered data into the UKCCMP database with information on adult cancer patients who contracted COVID-19. The project was set up to help researchers and clinicians better understand what groups of cancer patients are most at risk of severe COVID-19.

Using demographic data such as age, gender and tumour type, researchers were able to determine that patients with haematological cancers, particularly older patients and those with leukaemia, had a more severe COVID-19 trajectory compared to patients with solid organ tumours.