**8. Future research perspectives**

To understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and to connect the link between cancer and COVID-19, we need to develop and study suitable animal models that represent the comorbidity of different cancers and COVID-19 in patients with accuracy. Additionally, the role of specific SARS-CoV2 proteins may be studied by developing chimeric mouse models that express SARS-CoV2 proteins in some tissues. Ziegler et al. demonstrated that ACE2 expressing human cells are the primary targets for SARS-CoV2 infection and that human ACE2 expression in epithelial cells is interferon dependent [20]. Especially, a significantly weaker induction of murine ACE2 was observed in response to interferon or viral infection [20]. Thus, humanized models permissive to SARS-CoV2 infection would closely mimic the human disease condition. Investigating and identifying the relevant immune constituents may lead to new biological strategies to target co-morbidities associated with viral infections and cancer patients. Determining whether active SARS-CoV2 virus leads to cancer in mice would also be an interesting scientific to avenue to better understand the pathology of SARS-CoV2. Clearly, the learnings from cancer biology and cancer therapeutics research will help in establishing clinically effective treatment options for COVID-19 patients (**Figure 1**). It would also be of high relevance to include and study the role of demographic factors in context of cancer and COVID-19 comorbidities.

**Figure 1.** *Interconnection between COVID-19 and cancer.*

*COVID-19 and Cancer: Biological Interconnection and Treatment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97482*
