Researchers from MSK Kids at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) found that children with cancer are not at a higher risk of being affected by COVID-19.
Researchers from MSK Kids at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) found that children with cancer are not at a higher risk of being affected by COVID-19. This new research led by Andrew Kung, MD, PhD, Chair of MSK Kids and his colleagues was published today in JAMA Oncology. MSK Kids is one of the largest pediatric cancer programs in the United States with a patient population that includes children, adolescents and young adults with cancer and a small proportion with non-oncological diseases such as bone marrow failure and immunodeficiencies.
Bottom Line
Pediatric cancer patients are no more vulnerable than other children to COVID-19 infection or morbidity resulting from COVID-19. Of all children with cancer infected with COVID-19, 95 percent had mild symptoms and did not require hospitalization. MSK Kids clinicians also tested asymptomatic children with cancer finding only a 2.5 percent rate of positivity compared to nearly 15 percent in their adult caregivers. Only half of the children with COVID-19 positive caregivers were themselves also COVID-19 positive. The researchers also found a very significant sex skewing with the vast majority of COVID-19 infections occurring in males. Together, these results suggest that children with cancer are not more susceptible than other children to infection or symptoms resulting from COVID-19, and that children are not an unrecognized reservoir of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection.
Read more at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
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