CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)- A new study from the UVA Health’s Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research and UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that respiratory infections can also increase the risk of cancer in the body. 

Jie Sun, PhD, along with a group of researchers from the UVA School of Medicine released research details a “reprogramming” of immune cells located within inflamed lungs due to COVID-19 and influenza, among other diseases, that allows for easier development of tumors in the lungs. 

Both laboratory mice and data from human patients backed up Sun’s hypothesis.  Those hospitalized with COVID-19 were 1.24 times more likely to develop lung cancer.  

According to the study, the association between COVID-19 and lung cancer conventionally understood risks like smoking was unaffected. 

There is one way to ensure that these effects of a respiratory infection do not accelerate a person’s risk for lung cancer, and that is prior vaccination. 

“Vaccination largely prevents those harmful changes for cancer growth in the lung,” Sun said in a statement.   

Only severe covid cases seemed to display the lung changes, and the researchers emphasize that those who suffered minor covid cases will probably not have to contend with this.