Since its outbreak, severe acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV-2) has been a serious threat affecting the whole world with a negative impact on health social and economy.
Increased age, obesity, smoking and chronic conditions including diabetes mellitus are factors associated with developing more severe disease.
Inflammation strongly linked to cancer, and approximately 20% of tumours progress because of chronic inflammation. A similar interplay between inflammation and an immune response is reported during SARS-CoV-2 infection.
In this very interesting article, Authors from Italy describe which risk factors are commonly observed in patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection and in those with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
Immune system response and inflammation have been found to be a hallmark of both diseases: most severe cases of COVID-19 and high-risk NMIBC patients at higher recurrence and progression risk are characterized by innate and adaptive immune activation followed by inflammation and cytokine/chemokine storm.