According to a recent study, Covid-19 may unanticipatedly help cancer patients by reducing malignant tumors, which may result in the development of novel cancer treatments.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation will publish the study, which was carried out at Northwestern Medicine Canning, in November.
COVID-19 Helped Cancer Patients By Reducing Malignant Tumor: Study
Researchers began looking into this phenomena after several physicians noticed during the epidemic that certain cancer patients who had severe Covid-19 had slower tumor growth or tumor reduction.
Northwestern University’s head thoracic surgeon, Dr. Ankit Bharat, and his colleagues started to wonder if Covid-19’s effects on the immune system might be the cause of the fight against cancer cells.
According to the study, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which produces COVID-19, changes how immune cells called monocytes behave. Monocytes can draw cancer-fighting cells to tumors and usually notify other immune cells of infections. But in order to create a barrier that protects tumors and helps them avoid detection by the immune system, cancer cells frequently control monocytes.
This barrier surrounding the tumor is broken when SARS-CoV-2 is present, which makes it simpler for the immune system to recognize and target cancer cells.
The RNA from the virus stimulates the development of special immune cells that can reach and eliminate malignant tissue. This finding may lead to the development of treatments that imitate this immune response, which could provide new avenues for the treatment of malignancies such as melanoma, lung, breast, and colon cancer.
Dr. Bharat conveyed his surprise at the results, emphasizing the irony that a virus that causes extensive destruction can also produce potent immune cells that fight cancer.
New Treatment Possible For Aggressive or Advanced Tumors
According to the findings, a new treatment for aggressive or advanced tumors may be possible if the immune cell response brought on by COVID-19 is turned into a medication. Because they are not prone to resistance, which is a significant problem with conventional cancer treatments like immunotherapy, these immune cells are effective.
The immunological response elicited by Covid-19 RNA can stimulate natural killer cells, which are even more effective at eliminating cancer cells than immunotherapy, which mostly depends on T cells.
Although this does not mean that Covid-19 medication will take the place of immunotherapy, it may be used as an alternate or supplemental strategy in cases when immunotherapy proves ineffective.
According to the study, other RNA viruses, such as the flu, do not have the ability to produce these specialized immune cells; only the RNA of Covid-19 does.
Dr. Bharat expressed optimism about the future and the potential to revolutionize cancer care as researchers get ready for clinical trials to evaluate this novel cancer therapy strategy in human patients.
