Through research and support, LCRC members are seeking to limit the effect of  COVID-19 on vulnerable cancer patients:

• Scientists from Tulane School of Medicine are evaluating the efficacy of convalescent plasma as a therapy for COVID patients with cancer and for other immunocompromised patients. Using serial blood collections, researchers are studying the evolution and durability of the immune response over time. The LCRC Biospecimen Core Lab is supporting the research by collecting samples from cancer patients who have recovered from COVID-19.
• LSU Health New Orleans scientists are trying to find out why some patients get well and have no major health     problems while others are hospitalized on ventilators and die from the disease. The LCRC served as a collection site for LSU researchers who teamed up with scientists at the National Cancer Institute to study the antibodies of those who recovered from COVID-19.
• An Ochsner Cancer Institute retrospective study confirmed that patients with cancer are at increased risk of death from COVID-19. This finding provides increased urgency to the necessity of creating and adopting new strategies to protect this population in future outbreaks. The study is the first to suggest that cancer patients receiving recent cancer-directed therapy are at increased risk of death. 
• As testing plays a critical factor in evaluating and controlling the spread of COVID-19 in communities, the Xavier University campus served as a site for free community COVID-19 testing in New Orleans. 

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