Scientists studying the rise in rare and unusual cancers in young people are turning their attention to an unlikely culprit: Covid.
Preliminary research on cells has shown that the virus can stimulate tumor growth and disable the body’s defenses against it, but the theory is widely disputed.
However, there is a consensus among doctors: after the pandemic, they are seeing more and more young and relatively healthy people with obscure forms of the disease.
A doctor told DailyMail.com that the theory that Covid is causing these cases does not hold up because the trend predates the outbreak. Early-onset cancers of all forms are on the rise, increasing 79 percent globally between 1990 and 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Other experts found the Covid theory more convincing. They pointed to the fact that already one in four cancers has been linked to other viruses, such as HPV.
The above graph shows the change in cancer rates around the world
Kasra Jahankhani, an Iranian immunologist and lead researcher a 2023 report on this topic told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s really controversial and there’s a lot of debate on the subject, but we think there are many ways in which SARs Covid infection can affect cancers.’
His research suggested that the coronavirus may alter genes that normally stop tumors from forming and cause widespread inflammation throughout the body.
This inflammation combined with a reduced immune system could lead to the development of cancer cells in various organs, they wrote.
Viral associations with cancer are ‘unfortunately common,’ says Dr. Landau, oncologist and fellow at the Mesothelioma Center of Asbestos.com.
For example, with the human papillomavirus (HPV), it is believed that the virus itself can inject its DNA into the body’s cells, which can cause a mutation that leads to the growth of cancer cells.
‘Essentially, the virus tries to take over the cells of our body to promote its own growth and survival.
“But mutating cells to grow continuously is, at a simple level, how cancer arises,” Dr. Landau to DailyMail.com.
However, not all experts agree. Dr. Suneel Kamath, an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic, ruled out a link between Covid and cancer.
“The trends in rising incidence of cancers in younger people, such as bile duct, colorectal, breast, lung and stomach cancers, have been going on for years, even decades before Covid-19 existed, and they are still happening,” she said. he to DailyMail. com.
Viral associations with cancer are ‘unfortunately common,’ says Dr. Landau, oncologist and associate of The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com
Research has suggested that the coronavirus may alter genes that normally stop tumors from forming and cause widespread inflammation throughout the body
The diagnosis of colon cancer has reached epidemic levels, especially among those over 50. In the US, nearly 18,000 cases are diagnosed annually among this age group, compared to 12,000 per year before 2000.
The number of deaths from bowel cancer among young people is also expected to double by 2030, experts warn.
Uterine cancer has also increased by two percent every year in people under 50 since the mid-1990s.
Early-onset breast cancer also increased 3.8 percent annually between 2016 and 2019, and cancer rates do not appear to have increased dramatically since Covid.
But experts have said it may be too early to see that impact as “the long-term consequences of the pandemic will evolve over time,” Dr. Landau said.
CDC data shows that more people are now being diagnosed with cancer than before the pandemic. In 2021, 9.8 percent of adults reported that they had once been told by a doctor that they had cancer. In 2019, that share of adults was 9.5 percent.
One of the possible links between Covid and cancer is a gene called P53, which suppresses cancerous tumors in the body by preventing cells with mutated or damaged DNA from dividing, Jahankhani explained.
His research team discovered that the tumor suppressor gene P53 may be ‘degraded’ by SARS-CoV-2 and effectively blocked.
This means that it can no longer stop tumor growth. Other research has found that lower levels of P53 may make people more susceptible to cancer.
Another factor involves the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), a key system that regulates blood pressure in the body.
When the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to the ACE2 receptor, it causes the RAAS to malfunction.
This in turn causes inflammation and oxidative stress, factors that influence the progression and development of cancer.
Another way Covid and cancer may be linked is through proteins called cytokines.
When the body gets an infection like Covid, the immune system will start to fight it, including by using cytokines as a defense system against the virus.
The photo shows the coronavirus, indicated in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, indicated in blue/pink, grown in a laboratory. Research shows that the virus can revive dormant cancer cells and cause inflammation throughout the body that can lead to the proliferation of cancer cells.
The proteins tell immune cells what to do and also tell the body to produce more of them to ensure the infection is knocked out.
But sometimes too many cytokines can be released, causing the immune system to go into overdrive and triggering an increased inflammatory response.
The release of cytokines often makes us feel sick when we have an infection, Dr. Landau said.
“But these same cytokines can cause damage to the body, and that damage can increase the risk of cancer, especially if they remain high in the long term,” he said.
This increased inflammatory response occurs with long Covid-19, he added.
Too much inflammation can damage tissues and DNA and has been linked to the development of autoimmune diseases and cancer.
Inflammation also causes changes in the chromosomes in cells, and repeated changes can cause cells to become cancerous.
This abundance of cytokines can also lead to the development of cancer stem cells in organs such as the lungs and pancreas, as well as the bile ducts.
Because Covid infection occurs directly and indirectly in several organs, including the lungs, brain and kidneys, the researchers think that cancer stem cells can develop in multiple organs.
Stem cells are cells that have the ability to develop into many different cell types in the body.
Cancer stem cells, meanwhile, occur in tumors and have the ability to divide and renew, causing the tumor to grow and spread.
They can come from stem cells of adult tissue and initiate a tumor, especially if there is a lot of inflammation from Covid.
And while researchers cannot definitively rule out that the Covid vaccines play a role, Jahankhani said there is no evidence that this is the case.
His team ‘found nothing’ to support the idea that the Covid shot increased cancer rates.
The evidence supporting the virus theory appears much stronger, he added.
Dr. Landau acknowledged that while there have been problems with blood clots after the Covid vaccine, “there is no clear link yet with the development of cancer.”
“We suspect that the risk of cancer comes from the virus itself, and not the vaccine, but it will take years of further research to really understand this,” he said.