A study led by the University of Birmingham, using information from the UKCCP, showed a substantial drop in COVID-related hospitalizations and mortality amongst cancer patients after the vaccine rollout. The research study, published in Scientific Reports, covered 21 months and found that age is a more powerful death predictor than the kind of cancer.
Cancer clients saw a substantial decline in COVID-related hospitalizations and mortality following the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the very first scenic research study of its kind.
Released today (July 25) in the journal Scientific Reports, the research looked at the impact of the worldwide pandemic on case-outcome rates for cancer clients across a 21-month period from November 2020 to August 2022. The group of researchers led by the University of Birmingham found that hospitalizations in the duration fell from nearly one in 3 patients (30.58%) to one in 13 clients (7.45%); and, case-mortality rates fell from more than one in 5 clients (20.53%) to less than one in 30 clients (3.25%).
Amongst cancer clients, the study also found that age was a higher predictor of death rates than the kind of cancer that a client had. In 2022, the case mortality rate for patients over 80 was more than one in ten (10.32%) compared to less than one in 35 (2.83%) for those under 80.
Compared to the general population, COVID-19 infections leave cancer patients more than two times as likely to be hospitalized (2.1 times as likely) or regretfully die (2.54 times as likely) at the end of the research study period.
Dr. Lennard Lee from the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham and lead author of the study stated:
” People living with cancer are worried that they have actually been forgotten. Our work reveals that the UK is emerging out of the tunnel of the worldwide pandemic, and we understand who are still at the greatest threat of the consequences of COVID-19 infection so that theyre not left.
” This data is undoubtedly great news for cancer patients, however regardless of considerable falls in hospitalizations and mortality throughout the years we studied we can still see the extra risk
Thomas Starkey, PhD researcher from the University of Birmingham and first author of the study stated:
” By collecting and evaluating electronic healthcare information for evaluating the real-world effect of the global pandemic in the UK, we can now use population-scale data to secure people dealing with cancer from transmittable diseases such as COVID-19.”
Reference: “A population-scale temporal case-control examination of COVID-19 disease phenotype and related outcome rates in clients with cancer in England (UKCCP)” 25 July 2023, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/ S41598-023-36990-9.
The study drew from data from the UKCCP, one of the United Kingdoms longest-running pandemic responses with a mission to protect, examine and secure patients with cancer.
This task was a population-based research study of COVID-19 outcomes in patients with cancer from the study duration of 1st November 2020 to 31st August 2022, started to define the disease phenotype in the greatest medical threat groups.