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question everything

(49,107 posts)
Thu Jun 6, 2024, 11:35 PM Jun 2024

'Unusual' cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if covid is to blame. (really long)

(snip)

It was 2021, a year into the coronavirus pandemic, and as he slid into a chair, Patel shared that he’d just seen a patient in his 40s with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and lethal cancer of the bile ducts that typically strikes people in their 70s and 80s. Initially, there was silence, and then one colleague after another said they’d recently treated patients who had similar diagnoses. Within a year of that meeting, the office had recorded seven such cases. There was other weirdness, too: multiple patients contending with multiple types of cancer arising almost simultaneously, and more than a dozen new cases of other rare cancers.

(snip)

From his practice in this Southern town, Patel is conducting his own research into what he has taken to calling “an unusual pattern” of cancers. He is driven by watching patients — especially younger ones — die so quickly.

He’s looking at potential correlations between long-covid markers and unusual cancers. He has collected data from nearly 300 patients and wants to create a national registry to analyze trends. So far, his office has logged more than 15 patients with multiple cancers, more than 35 patients with rare cancers and more than 15 couples with new cancers since the pandemic began in 2020.

Patel theorizes the effects of coronavirus infections could be cumulative in people infected multiple times. Pandemic-related stress may compound the threat, he said, by exacerbating inflammation. If a link is established between the virus and cancer, he said, doctors might identify patients at greater risk and implement screenings earlier and even put some patients on anti-inflammatory drugs.

More..

https://wapo.st/3Kvhb9d

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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'Unusual' cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if covid is to blame. (really long) (Original Post) question everything Jun 2024 OP
Scary AKwannabe Jun 2024 #1
This does not sound good at all. StarryNite Jun 2024 #2
That was a disturbing read. sheshe2 Jun 2024 #3
I'll tell you the first thing I thought of: before AIDS was ever given a name, it was rare cancers showing up ... Hekate Jun 2024 #4
Hoping for the best. For all the ones - physicians - who discourage routine mammograms question everything Jun 2024 #7
the link btn viruses and cancers is well understood. it wd kinda b surprising if this virus didnt kick off cancers. mopinko Jun 2024 #5
Marking to read in full later ms liberty Jun 2024 #6
Thanks for posting this. I'll keep masking. 58Sunliner Jun 2024 #8

Hekate

(95,319 posts)
4. I'll tell you the first thing I thought of: before AIDS was ever given a name, it was rare cancers showing up ...
Fri Jun 7, 2024, 03:51 AM
Jun 2024

…that alerted doctors that something new was going on. Only later did they identify it as a virus.

So — long COVID — a deadly virus which has by now already been identified — and rare cancers.

I don’t like the sounds of this at all. Especially since my sister has recently had a very iffy shadow show up on her routine mammogram. No lump. And her doc wants to biopsy it yesterday. And a pre-melanoma on her ankle that her dermatologist also wants to thoroughly excise. Oh, did I mention she was an early COVID patient who spent 5 days in the hospital?

Well, thank you for this article and link. Downloading to read later.

question everything

(49,107 posts)
7. Hoping for the best. For all the ones - physicians - who discourage routine mammograms
Fri Jun 7, 2024, 09:39 AM
Jun 2024

I know of two cases, one was deep, next to the breast bone, the other right below the nipple. No outside checking would have found either.


mopinko

(71,998 posts)
5. the link btn viruses and cancers is well understood. it wd kinda b surprising if this virus didnt kick off cancers.
Fri Jun 7, 2024, 05:13 AM
Jun 2024

1 thing i’ll say- covid is expanding medical knowledge explosively.
doc dont look at me funny any more when i tell them i had wnv and was never the same.

ms liberty

(9,885 posts)
6. Marking to read in full later
Fri Jun 7, 2024, 07:13 AM
Jun 2024

Sounds scary, and sounds like I'm glad I've been able to avoid getting it so far, and very glad that I vaxx to the max.

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