COVID-19 and Cancer: Current Challenges and Perspectives

Patients with cancer have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This effect has included the adverse outcomes in patients with cancer who develop COVID-19, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of cancer care, as well as the severe disruption to cancer research. However, patients with cancer are a heterogeneous patient population and recent studies have now documented factors that allow risk stratification of patients with cancer in order to optimize care. In this review, we highlight data at the intersection of COVID-19 and cancer, including the biological interplay between the two diseases and practical recommendations for the treatment of patients with cancer during the pandemic. We additionally discuss the potential long-lasting impact of the pandemic on cancer care, due to its deleterious effect on cancer research, as well as biological insights from the cancer research community that could help develop novel therapies for all patients with COVID-19.

Ziad Bakouny,¹ Jessica E. Hawley,² Toni K. Choueiri,¹ Solange Peters,³ Brian I. Rini,⁴ Jeremy L. Warner,^4,5 Corrie A. Painter⁶

1 Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. 2 Division of Hematology and Oncology, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA. 3 Oncology Department, CHUV, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland. 4 Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA. 5 Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA. 6 Cancer Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Source: Bakouny, Z., Hawley, J.E., Choueiri, T.K., Peters, S., Rini, B.I., Warner, J.L., Painter, C.A., COVID-19 and Cancer:Current Challenges and Perspectives, Cancer Cel (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2020.09.018.

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