A study has indicated that more than 16,000 cancer deaths from March to December 2020 in the United States were linked to complications due to Covid-19.
The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology. The research has found that a higher percentage of blood or prostate cancer deaths in the country were linked to complications due to Covid-19 as compared with cancer deaths without the disease.
Study author Xuesong Han from the American Cancer Society (ACS) said, "We know that cancer patients are at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 due to weakened immune systems," adding, “Patients with hematological neoplasms or blood cancer and prostate cancer might be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 complications and die from it." The higher percentage of cancer-Covid-19 complications deaths happened among people who have been diagnosed with hematological neoplasms and prostate cancer, the researchers have found.
This was as compared to the cancer deaths unrelated to Covid-19. Hematological neoplasm is an abnormal mass of tissue located in the blood and blood-forming tissue.