The results show that childhood cancer survivors had a lower risk of contracting Covid but were 58 per cent more likely to develop severe disease if they did become infected
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While medical advances are boosting the survival rate of cancer in childhood, the survivors could be at a higher risk of developing severe Covid-19 as adults, according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health-Europe on Friday.
The study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden showed that health risks may remain long after treatment has ended.
The results show that childhood cancer survivors had a lower risk of contracting Covid but were 58 per cent more likely to develop severe disease if they did become infected.
Severe Covid was defined as the patient receiving hospital care, intensive care, or death related to the infection.
"It is important to understand that even though these individuals were not infected more often, the consequences were more serious when they did become ill," said Javier Louro, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska.
The team investigated how adult childhood cancer survivors in Sweden and Denmark were affected by the Covid pandemic.
The study included over 13,000 people who had been diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20 and who were at least 20 years old when the pandemic began.
They were compared with both siblings and randomly selected individuals from the population of the same gender and year of birth.
The differences in risk were particularly clear during periods of high transmission, such as when new virus variants such as alpha and omicron spread rapidly.
"Our results suggest that childhood cancer survivors should be considered a risk group in future pandemics or other health crises," Louro, said.
"This could involve prioritising them for vaccination or offering special protection during periods of high transmission," the researcher added.
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