Cancer and COVID-19: How the Novel Coronavirus Is Affecting Screening and Treatment

As more than 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, cancer patients – who are often immunocompromised and depend on regular treatments to prevent the progression of the disease – are particularly at risk for dying by the potentially deadly virus. "Most cancers themselves put patients into immune-compromised states. That state is profoundly reinforced and worsened by the treatments that we give," said Dr. Julie Bauman, deputy director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center.