Patients with a history of cancer have a higher prevalence of risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, chronic heart disease and chronic kidney conditions, according to a study.
Welcome to The Medical Republic’s COVID Catch-Up.
It’s the day’s COVID-19 news in one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.
2 December
- Cancer survivors may be at risk of worse COVID-19 outcomes, study suggests.
- The latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia.
- Cancer survivors may be at greater risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19, say the authors of a study published in eClinical Medicine.
A matched cohort study using electronic health records from 108,215 cancer survivors and 523,541 individuals with no history of cancer compared risk factors known to be associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes.
Researchers found that cancer survivors had a higher prevalence of risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, chronic heart disease and chronic kidney conditions compared to controls. They also had a higher risk of being hospitalised with influenza or dying from it – particularly those with haematological cancers.
Noting that there was a lack of direct evidence of how COVID-19 affected cancer survivors, the study’s authors suggested that cancer survivorship should be considered a risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes.
“This should be taken into account in public health policies targeted at protecting clinical risk groups,” they wrote. - Here are the latest confirmed COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia to 9pm Tuesday:
National – 27,912 with 908 deaths
ACT – 117 (0)
NSW – 4582 (5)
NT – 53 (0)
QLD – 1202 (0)
SA – 562 (0)
TAS – 230 (0)
VIC – 20,345 (0)
WA – 821 (3)
