Dr. Bardia on the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on Immunocompromised Patients

Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, director of Precision Medicine at the Center for Breast Cancer and founding director of the Molecular and Precision Medicine Metastatic Breast Cancer Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the potential impact of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on immunocompromised patients.

Many questions remain regarding how COVID-19 will impact immunocompromised individuals, including patients with cancer, says Bardia.

Data from China suggests that elderly patients are at an increased risk of developing a severe infection from the virus, explains Bardia. Therefore, patients with compromised immune systems could also be at risk for severe infection.

In order to curb the number of cases, researchers are working to develop a vaccine and assays for early disease detection. These efforts may change the natural history of COVID-19, concludes Bardia.