The combination of cancer and covid-19 must be treated with care. Both the disease and its treatments, especially chemotherapy, can weaken the immune system and lower the patient’s defenses, hence the importance of vaccination and compliance with biosafety protocols.
Rubén Darío Salazar, hematologist and clinical oncologist at Medicáncer, explains that when these cases occur, the most important thing is to consult and get tested to find out if you have the virus. “If so, it is necessary to determine what measures to implement according to the risk factors that the person presents, since each patient has a history and a particular clinical situation.” If the symptoms are alarming such as shortness of breath, coughing up blood, persistent fever, fainting or chest pain, you should go to the emergency room.
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And when to get vaccinated?
Alicia Quiroga Echeverri, internist and oncologist at Pablo Tobón Uribe Hospital, indicates that the optimal time for cancer patients to be vaccinated against covid-19 is when their defenses are strengthened, therefore, she recommends that they do so before chemotherapy , not after this because the defenses can be lowered and antibodies are not generated in the vaccination.
For her part, the internist and infectologist at the Hospital San Vicente Fundación Paula Andrea Valencia Rey specified that when the cancer is hematological (in the blood), the third dose of the vaccine should be applied one month after the second and in the other types cancer four months later.
Specialists note that the sequelae or effects that covid-19 can leave on cancer patients range from respiratory failure for several months, which may require assistance with oxygen, intubation or intensive therapy; inflammation of the heart muscles; even neurological disorders. Other sequelae can be arterial or venous thrombosis, loss of smell and taste, joint pain, sleep, fatigue and kidney damage.
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