In Their Own Words

Superbugs Put Cancer Patients at Risk

Oncologists Urged To Recognize Rising Antimicrobial Resistance as a Direct Threat, Says LDI Expert

July 18, 2025

By:

Yehoda M. Martei, MD, MSCE

Print:

Doctor and patient meeting, doctor holding bottle of medication

The following excerpt was published on STAT News on July 16, 2025.

As a medical oncologist, one of the first threats I inform new patients about during the informed consent process for cancer treatment is how vulnerable they now are to infections. Cancer weakens the immune system, and common therapies on which we rely, such as chemotherapy, further diminish the body’s ability to protect itself from infections. An upper respiratory infection might be an inconvenience for a healthy adult. For an immunocompromised person living with cancer, it could be fatal.

Most people don’t understand how important antibiotics are to cancer care. My entire ability to treat a patient’s cancer is predicated on the idea that antibiotics will both cure and prevent opportunistic bacterial infections throughout their course of care. It is no exaggeration when I say that antibiotics have helped nearly every cancer patient whom I have successfully cared for during their hospital admission for complications of their cancer or treatment.

And yet, when I was invited to be part of a joint task force and research team focused on antimicrobial resistance among cancer patients, I hesitated. My first thought was, “That’s not a cancer specialist’s problem, that’s an infectious disease problem.”

Read the full First Opinion here.