Clinical challenges in cancer patients with COVID-19: Aging, immunosuppression, and comorbidities

Wang, Lu; Sun, Yinan; Yuan, Ye; Mei, Qi; Yuan, Xianglin

COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has developed into a global pandemic. COVID-19 poses a huge threat to health care, and the shortage of medical resources caused by COVID-19 brought serious secondary disasters to elderly cancer patients who are particularly dependent on medical resources. The clinical challenges of cancer management, including aging, immunosuppression, and comorbidities, make cancer patients more vulnerable to COVID-19 with different clinical manifestations, disease severity, and outcomes. The review comprehensively analyzed the characteristics of the cancer patients under the pandemic and concluded that cancer patients were more susceptible to COVID-19, and also concluded that they were more likely to develop poor outcomes and the severe form of the disease. Three basic management strategies have been proposed to protect susceptible elderly cancer patients, find reliable indicators to monitor the course of disease, and implement effective prevention measures.