Research from Chicago Northwestern Medicine shows that severe COVID-19 can shrink cancer cells

CHICAGO (WLS) — New research from Northwestern Medicine shows that in some cases of severe COVID, the immune response actually killed cancer cells.

Researchers are trying to harness this immune power in new cancer therapies.

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During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of people were hospitalized as doctors and nurses worked to the bone, medical professionals noticed something strange, especially in a handful of patients with cancer.

“When those patients got severe COVID, the cancer shrank,” said Ankit Bharat, chief of Thoracic Surgery Northwestern Medicine. “So it was a very bizarre observation and we wondered: is it just a coincidence or does it really exist?”

Dr. Bharat says new research on human tissue and animal models shows what could be a silver lining from a bleak era that could benefit cancer patients.

“Our preclinical studies show that it is generally effective in some of the most common cancers that affect us, such as lung, breast, colon and melanoma,” said Dr. Bharat.

Hang in there, because you never know what this innovative, incredible team of doctors will come up with next.

Researchers were able to create the same cells found in some patients with severe COVID not to protect cancer, but to provide reinforcements to attack it.

“When they said we were out of options, he got the call for the transplant a year later,” Lori Friesen said.

Friesen and Keith Zafren have been on a cancer journey together. Zafren was one of the first lung cancer patients to receive a double lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine in a unique clinical program. If his cancer were ever to return, traditional immunotherapies would not be an option due to the risk of organ rejection.

“I would like to participate in that new study if the cancer returns,” Zafren said.

The COVID-based research is different from immunotherapy.

“This mechanism of these monocytes can selectively kill the cancer cells without affecting the newly transplanted lungs,” said Dr. Bharat.

“Hold on, because you never know what this innovative, incredible team of doctors is going to come up with next,” Friesen said.

Researchers hope to carry out the study in human clinical trials next year.

More information about Northwestern Medicine research can be found here found here.