A new analysis by the C.D.C., which examined flu-related hospitalizations from 2010 to 2023, unpacks some of the factors that put people most at risk of severe health outcomes. Age, neurological disorders, lung diseases, pregnancy, obesity and chronic metabolic diseases, heart disease, high blood pressure and vaccination status are among the main contributors. About half of adults hospitalized with the flu have heart disease, according to the C.D.C. People with cardiovascular disease tend to be older adults with less robust immune systems, said Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc, a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine. Studies have shown that flu increases the risk of heart attack and stroke in people with cardiovascular disease, she said. “People who have heart disease are less able to tolerate the stress of the infection itself,” she said.Even if you are vaccinated, it’s important to watch out for symptoms that might warrant medical care, like difficulty breathing and chest pain. Experts also recommend seeking care if you have other flu symptoms, such as a fever or cough, that don’t go away on their own within a week.

The COVID-19 virus may have the surprising ability to shrink some tumors, paving the way for new cancer treatments, a new study has found. The research, conducted at the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute and set to be the cover story for the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, began after a recent discovery. In some cases, cancer patients with a severe COVID-19 infection saw a temporary regression of their cancer, said Ankit Bharat, MBBS, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Canning Thoracic Institute. “That was what really sparked our interest,” Bharat said. Bharat and his team, investigating why that regression happened, learned that the RNA within the COVID-19 virus triggers the development of a unique immune cell that can fight cancer. The findings will help develop a treatment that mimics how the virus makes those immune cells. The results show promise for treating some of the most common cancers, including melanoma, lung, breast and colon cancer, Bharat said. The study was done using both human tissues and animal models. Researchers found that the COVID-19 virus is able to transform the common monocyte, a white blood cell in the immune system, into a powerful immune cell. Those cells are then able to travel and attack cancer cells inside tumors. “It’s incredible, and a big surprise, that the same infection that caused so much devastation can help create a cancer-fighting cell,” Bharat said.

New research from Northwestern University shows a surprise connection between COVID-19 and cancer regression. Researchers found the RNA from the virus triggers a unique type of immune cell with anti-cancer fighting abilities. They say this new information opens the door for new research and a way to treat cancer. Doctors say this research was inspired by a trend they noticed during the pandemic. “Some patients who had stage four cancer, when they develop severe COVID, we found that some of their cancer sites or the cancer in several sites shrunk,” said Ankit Bharat, MBBS. So, researchers at Northwestern started their journey to figure out why this might be happening. They discovered when someone gets badly infected with COVID, the virus can actually enter the bloodstream, shedding its RNA. That gets circulated and becomes a very common immune cell called monocytes. “They convert these monocytes into friendly cells. Basically, they convert them into cells that protect those cancer cells against second invasion by the immune system of the host. So what we found was that the RNA of the COVID virus could convert these monocytes into not those cancer-friendly cells, but cancer-fighting cells,” said Bharat.

Viruses don’t often come with silver linings, and infections don’t generally lead to positive health effects. But during the pandemic, some doctors anecdotally began noticing that some people with cancer who got very sick with COVID-19 saw their tumors shrink or grow more slowly. “We didn’t know if it was real, because these patients were so sick,” says Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern University. “Was it because the immune system was so triggered by COVID-19 that it also started to kill cancer cells? What was it?” Bharat and his team decided conduct a study to find out if the seeming “benefit” of COVID-19 for these cancer patients could teach them anything about a potential new way to fight cancer—or if it was simply a red herring. They published their findings Nov. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Another intriguing part of the equation, says Bharat, is that this pathway is independent of the T cell immune treatments that are becoming a big part of cancer therapy now, in which doctors boost the population of T cells that can recognize and attack cancer cells. They can be effective, but generally only work for a while, since cancers quickly find ways to circumvent the T cells and become resistant to the therapies.