COVID-19, flu can reactivate dormant cancer cells: Study
Researchers have discovered that catching COVID-19 or the flu can reactivate dormant cancer cells in the lungs, raising the risk of new tumors and death for cancer survivors.
The findings come from a University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in Nature.
Inflammation triggers a molecule called IL-6
In both mice and real-world data, infection with these viruses caused a huge spike in metastatic lung tumors—more than 100-fold in the mouse model.
The culprit? Inflammation triggers a molecule called IL-6, which tells sleeping cancer cells to start growing again.
Since some drugs already target IL-6 for severe COVID-19 cases, researchers hope these could help prevent virus-related cancer relapses too.
Protecting cancer survivors from respiratory viruses is even more important
Scientists are now looking at whether vaccines or existing drugs can keep those dormant cells from waking up after an infection.
Bottom line: protecting cancer survivors from respiratory viruses is even more important than we thought.