Dr. Savvides on the Risk of COVID-19 in Patients With Cancer

Panayiotis S. Savvides, MD, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona, discusses COVID-19 precautions for patients with lung cancer.

The situation with COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve, with providers working hard to observe all available information and rapidly communicate with one another as they try to extrapolate the data from epidemiologic observations, says Savvides. It appears that those who are more susceptible to experiencing severe, and potentially lethal, complications from COVID-19 infection have certain characteristics. Susceptible populations include those who are elderly, those with significant comorbidities, and those who are immunosuppressed. Many patients with lung cancer are included in the latter category, says Savvides. As a group, all patients with cancer who are undergoing active treatment and are immunosuppressed have to be more careful and physicians must try to minimize their exposure to the virus, concludes Savvides.