PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New research on the interplay between COVID-19 and cancer is showing that the pandemic took a toll on the number of cancer screenings, outcomes and overall patient needs. However, the coronavirus had a positive effect in areas of clinical research and practice.
Philadelphia-based American Association of Cancer Research recently released a new report that takes a closer look at the impact COVID-19 has had on cancer diagnosis, research and care.
Antoni Ribas, a professor of medicine at UCLA and chair of the report’s steering committee, says the COVID-19 pandemic may be the first setback in the fight against cancer in the last 20 to 30 years.
"The data has already documented that there's an increased death rate from cancer in the last period during COVID-19 compared to the recent years," Ribas said.
Further, the report’s authors say nearly 10 million missed cancer screenings in 2020 could end up turning into later-stage cancers.
Ribas says the findings also show COVID-19 vaccines may not work on certain cancer patients who receive "B cell" targeted therapies.
"Some patients with cancer may not benefit from the vaccines, because their cancers are affecting their cells that make antibodies … from COVID-19 vaccines," Ribas said.
"Those are, in particular, patients with certain kinds of blood cancers. Despite being vaccinated, they do not get protection. So we really need to have everyone else around them be protected."
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Ribas says they also found that medically underserved populations, who may already be more affected by the pandemic, could also be facing those disruptions to cancer-related care.
"The combination of delayed diagnosis, less procedures done on time, and the direct effect of COVID-19 on patients with cancer, are leading to worse outcomes," Ribas said.
However, he adds, there are positive points in their research showing that COVID-19 research and cancer research have helped each other out.
"Many of the advances on the understanding of COVID-19, and treating COVID-19 and vaccinations, come from learnings from the cancer field," Ribas said.
He says, in many ways, cancer research played a role in the study of variants and how vaccines work. For example, he said, sequencing methods for cancer are now used for sequencing different variants for COVID-19.
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Some other successes coming out of the past two years include improved access to telehealth visits, the ability of medical professionals to observe and record the vital signs of their patients at home, more funding for research in the medical field, more analysis being done on antibody response to cancer and COVID-19, and more people having access to clinical trials.
The AACR report included several recommendations in a call to action for lawmakers, including increased investment in cancer research and a broadening of health care coverage.