US Physicians and Scientists are Examining if the COVID-19 Virus is Responsible for the "Unusual" Rise in Uncommon and Fatal Cancer Cases.

Following the pandemic, there was a "unusual" rise in uncommon and fatal cancer cases. US physicians and scientists are currently looking into whether the COVID-19 virus is to blame for this increase.

After coming to the conclusion that there was strong evidence among their own patients to show a connection between COVID and cancer diagnoses, the group of medical specialists got together to start research projects and exchange data, according to the Washington Post.

Regarding the increase of instances he has encountered, South Carolina oncologist and CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates Kashyap Patel remarked, "I've been in practice for 23 years and have never seen anything like this."

Patel said he has already gathered information from dozens of his own patients suggesting a potential connection between uncommon malignancies and prolonged COVID. Patel is advocating for a nationwide registry to examine patterns.

Afshin Beheshti, president of the COVID-19 International Research Team, stated, "Hopefully, we're wrong." "But regrettably, everything is working to make that the case."

Among those attempting to put the puzzle pieces together is Beheshti, whose background is in cancer biology. He said that during the pandemic, he observed cases and research demonstrating that COVID was causing widespread inflammation and infection in organs vulnerable to the generation of cancer stem cells.

“The signals seemed to be related to early cancer changes,” he said.

As of now, neither conclusive research nor real-world data exist to determine whether COVID-19 has truly caused a rise in cancer cases.

Physicians in the United States are urging the federal government to give priority to this research, citing the possibility that the results could impact cancer patient care and disease management in the coming decades.

Evolutionary biologist and geneticist Douglas C. Wallace of the University of Pennsylvania told the site, "We are completely under-investigating this virus."

“The effects of repeatedly getting this throughout our lives is going to be much more significant than people are thinking.

I would say most governments don’t want to think about long COVID and much less long COVID and cancer,” he continued. “It cost them so much to deal with COVID. So there is very little funding for the long-term effects of the virus. I don’t think that’s a wise choice.”

Wallace is now investigating the potential effects of COVID on cancer susceptibility and cell energy generation.