Cancer Dynamics Laboratory
: CAPTURE study
COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges for clinicians in delivering cancer care.
Critical treatments such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy are essential for curing and controlling cancer, but there was uncertainty about how these treatments affected patients' immune responses to the virus.
Leveraging our extensive expertise in cancer immunology and infectious diseases, we embarked on a study to explore the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in cancer patients. This research aims to unravel the complex interactions between the host, the cancer, the virus and the anti-cancer therapies.
We launched a large prospective immune-monitoring trial at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. In the initial phase, our goal was to determine the true extent of COVID-19's impact on cancer patients, including those who were asymptomatic or had already recovered.
The study investigated how factors such as cancer type, disease stage, various cancer treatments, host genetics and immune response influence the severity of a patient’s infection, their survival chances and potential effects on their cancer.
The findings from this study are crucial for developing much-needed clinical guidelines, minimising long-term impacts on cancer patients and protecting vulnerable individuals in hospital settings.
Almost 1,000 patients with cancer were recruited into CAPTURE. We collected, tracked and analysed around 20,000 samples and more than 200 data points were entered for each patient.
For more information about the study, please visit The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research UK.
Clinical Study Identifier: NCT03226886.
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
