COVID-19 and Lung Cancer: Strengthening the Prevention Component and Improving the Prognosis

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic overwhelmed health-care delivery systems owing to the significant morbidity and mortality. Lung cancer in the year 2020 alone has accounted for more than 2.2 million new cases and 1.8 million deaths across the globe. The purpose of the current review is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer and to identify measures that can improve the prognosis of cancer patients during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An extensive search related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed and World Health Organization website. Relevant research articles focusing on COVID-19 and lung cancer published between April 2020 and June 2021 were included in the review. Forty-five studies similar to the current study objectives were identified initially. Among them, five were excluded due to unavailability of the complete version of the articles. Overall, forty articles were selected based on the suitability with current review objectives. Keywords used in the search include COVID-19 and Lung cancer in the title alone only. It has been estimated that patients with lung cancer will have a significantly higher risk of an adverse outcome, if they acquire COVID-19 infection. National bodies across multiple nations have released recommendations for both prevention and optimal management of COVID-19 infection among known lung cancer patients. To conclude, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected patients with lung cancer. Owing to the emergence of evidence of poor prognosis of infection among lung cancer patients, there is an indispensable need to adopt a multidisciplinary treatment approach.