(Bloomberg) -- Cancer patients are at high risk of severe disease if they contract Covid-19, and those with blood diseases are in the most danger, researchers said.
People with leukemia and other blood cancers who contract the coronavirus face as much as 57% higher odds of severe disease compared to those with breast cancer, according to a study published Monday in The Lancet Oncology journal.
The pandemic has flooded hospitals with patients around the world, interrupting time-sensitive care for cancer and other conditions. The researchers studied data from from 60 centers in the U.K. Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project to develop an “encyclopedia” of which are most vulnerable to the disease, said Lennard Lee, a University of Oxford researcher who helped write the study.
The findings will help patients and their doctors make informed decisions about their risks and treatments, he said.
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