Abstract
The aim of the work was to form sound principles for the diagnostic assessment of post-COVID conditions in cancer patients with multimorbidity, taking into account concomitant diseases and specific treatment. An observational comparative clinical study was conducted at the state institution “Institute of Medical Radiology and Oncology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine” (January 2022 – July 2024) and included 130 cancer patients at the stage of preparation for special treatment to assess clinical manifestations, indicators of the functional state of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and computed tomography characteristics of the lungs in patients with and without a history of COVID-19. The results showed that patients with oncological pathology and a history of coronavirus disease were more likely to have asthenia (86.5%), shortness of breath (47.7%), cough (37.3%), and ischemic ST-segment changes (22.4%) compared to controls (79.4%, 36.5%, 22.2%, and 9.5%, respectively), which indicated the formation of a stable cardiorespiratory and subclinical cardiac profile of the post-COVID state. Respiratory function disorders before the start of special treatment were recorded in 37.3% of patients with a history of coronavirus disease and in 23.8% without it, mainly due to restrictive changes, which reflected a decrease in ventilatory reserves. At the stage of one-month post-treatment observation in the main group, an increase in the prevalence of restrictive disorders by 35.8% was recorded while maintaining a stable computed tomography picture with bilateral subpleural interstitial changes, which indicated in favor of a post-COVID, rather than metastatic or post-radiation genesis of the changes. The results obtained showed that COVID-19 in multimorbid oncological patients forms a stable clinical and functional cardiorespiratory profile at the stage of preparation for treatment. The data are appropriate for use by oncologists, radiologists and cardiologists of specialized institutions in pre-treatment risk assessment and interpretation of cardiopulmonary changes after COVID-19