COVID-19 could reawaken breast cancer cells in some: Study – Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News

A recent Aurora-based University of Colorado Cancer Center study found that COVID-19 infection in cancer patients can reawaken cancer cells and lead to metastasis.

The study, published July 30 in Nature, used mice models of breast cancer, as well as data on cancer survivors from the UK BioBank and Flatiron Health databases to analyse the impact of a COVID-19 infection on the risk of cancer-related mortality and lung metastasis.

It is well known that people who were treated for cancer and have remained disease free for years can relapse years or even decades later from metastatic disease originating from their original cancer, according to a July 30 system news release. 

Here are three study notes:

1. Respiratory viral infections, such as COVID-19, can trigger inflammation that reawakens dormant cancer cells in the lungs, and raises the risk of lung metastasis and cancer-related mortality.

2. In animal models, the flu virus or COVID-19 led to more than a 100-fold expansion of previously dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs.

3. Behind the reawakening of cancer cells is interleukin 6, a cytokine known to be involved in inflammatory responses.