Oncologist . COVID-19 in cancer patients: A retrospective study of 212 cases from a French SARS-CoV-2 cluster during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

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Oncologist


. 2021 May 24.
doi: 10.1002/onco.13831. Online ahead of print.
COVID-19 in cancer patients: A retrospective study of 212 cases from a French SARS-CoV-2 cluster during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic


Sophie Martin ¹ , Charlotte Kaeuffer ² , Pierre Leyendecker ³ , Nicolas Tuzin ⁴ , Youssef Tazi ⁵ , Frédérique Schaff-Wendling ⁶ , Tiffanie Kleinheny ⁷ , Stéphanie Husson-Wetzel ⁸ , Guillaume Pamart ⁹ , Jean-Marc Limacher ¹⁰ , Olivier Clerc ¹¹ , Elise Dicop ¹ , Jean-Emmanuel Kurtz ¹ , Philippe Barthélémy ¹ , Justine Gantzer ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 34028132
• DOI: 10.1002/onco.13831

Abstract

We describe a large series of solid tumor patients in an early Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cluster of the eastern part of France. From February to May 2020, this multicenter retrospective study enrolled 212 cancer patients under treatment or on follow-up for any type of malignant solid tumor and positive for severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2. The mortality rate was 30%. Patients with gastrointestinal cancers were identified like a subset of more vulnerable cancer patients and immunotherapy or radiotherapy within 3 months from COVID-19 diagnosis were risk factors for death. The reported data support the essential need to be proactive and weigh the risks of morbidity from COVID-19 against the magnitude of benefits of intended cancer therapies during this pandemic. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This article supports the essential need to be proactive (treatment delay or modification) in oncology in the setting of pandemic. Indeed, we identified gastrointestinal cancers like a subset of more vulnerable cancer patients and found that immunotherapy and radiotherapy within 3 months from COVID-19 diagnosis as risk factors for death. The reported data indicate the necessity to weigh the risks of morbidity from COVID-19 against the magnitude of benefits of intended cancer therapies so that the situation would be different if there were another wave of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cancer; mortality; patients' management; retrospective cohort; risk factor.