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Paediatric Cancer Patients Have No Greater Risk of Severe COVID-19 than Healthy Children

Children with cancer do not have an increased risk for severe COVID-19 infection compared with the healthy paediatric population, a study published in the British Journal of Cancer suggests.

The UK Paediatric Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project was initiated in April 2020 on the lines of a similar project in adult cancer patients.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Manchester analysed prospectively and retrospectively collected data from children and adolescents with cancer aged <16 years managed by Principal Treatment Centres in the UK. All SARS-CoV-2-positive cases were identified using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

Of the 54 cases of COVID-19 identified in children between 12 March and 31 July 2020, 15 (28%) had no symptoms, 34 (63%) had mild infection and five (10%) had moderate (n=1), severe (n=1) or critical infections (n=3). Of the three patients who required intensive care support, one had a history of chronic lung disease. None of the critically ill patients died.

Dr Martin Mccabe, one of the authors of the study, said: "The study provides strong evidence that we should continue to treat childhood cancer during the pandemic with the intensive treatments shown to have the best outcomes."

Millen GC, Arnold R, Cazier JB, Curley H, Feltbower RG, Gamble A, Glaser AW, Grundy RG, Lee LYW, McCabe MG, Phillips RS, Stiller CA, Várnai C, Kearns PR. Severity of COVID-19 in children with cancer: Report from the United Kingdom Paediatric Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project. Br J Cancer. 2020 Dec 10 [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1038/s41416-020-01181-0. PMID: 33299130View full text

This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.

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