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Oncologists in Oxford join Leeds, Birmingham and more universities to help monitor COVID-19 positive cancer patients

Image of COVID19 virus structure

Oncologists at the University of Oxford have joined with researchers at the University of Leeds and Birmingham to help monitor cancer patients who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The purpose of the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring scheme is to assess how cancer patients will be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and help to make informed treatment pathways through clinician-lead reports. In doing so, it is hoped that the monitoring system will ensure that high-quality cancer care is being delivered in order to safeguard patients during this time.

There are many unknowns in terms of the interactions between COVID-19 and cancer, including disease-specific mortality such as which type of cancer patients are at risk, age-specific cancer mortality such as how older cancer patients will cope with coronavirus infection, interaction with cancer treatments and who is most at risk in terms of treatment, impact of public health interventions and potential impact on patients.

Oxford will contribute to the project by collecting information to submit to a database, which tracks the prevalence of COVID-19 infections with associated anonymised data about the site of disease and mortality. This will be achieved through a newly-formed network of cancer COVID-19 response reporting clinicians, covering 82% of the UK’s cancer centre network.

In return, the scheme will relay daily updates back to the Oxford cancer centres and help to inform key decisions for patients who are at-risk.

The project team is made up of medical oncologists, data scientists and graphic designers including the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, University of Leeds, Kings College London, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, University College London and Edinburgh Cancer Hospital. This work is supported by the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

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