Dr Melvin Chua speaks to ecancer about a study examining the incidence and outcomes of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in cancer patients who were treated at a tertiary care hospital in Wuhan, China.

He explains the background and design of this retrospective study, which utilised medical records to identify demographic, clinical and treatment data of 1,524 patients.

Dr Chua explains that the results of this study confirm that cancer patients are at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection compared to the general community. More than half of these patients were also diagnosed with lung cancer, which may place them at a higher risk of infection. Age was also a confounding factor in this analysis.

Dr Chua also acknowledges his collaborator – Prof Xie Cong Hua from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, who is the co-collaborator of this study. 

Read the study here.

Other ecancer resources on COVID-19 can be found here.