Background:

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an acute respiratory syndrome caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread worldwide, significantly affecting the outcome of a highly vulnerable group such as cancer patients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical impact of COVID-19 infection on outcome and oncologic treatment of cancer patients.

Patient and methods:

We retrospectively enrolled cancer patients with laboratory and/or radiologic confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, admitted to our center from February to April 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the clinical data and univariate analyses were performed to investigate the impact of anticancer treatment modifications due to COVID-19 outbreak on the short-term overall survival (OS).

Results:

Among 61 patients enrolled, 49 (80%) were undergoing anticancer treatment and 41 (67%) had metastatic disease. Most patients were men; median age was 68 years. Median OS was 46.6 days (40% of deaths occurred within 20 days from COVID-19 diagnosis). Among 59 patients with available data on therapeutic course, 46 experienced consequences on their anticancer treatment schedule. Interruption or a starting failure of the oncologic therapy correlated with significant shorter OS. Anticancer treatment delays did not negatively affect the OS. Lymphocytopenia development after COVID was significantly associated with worst outcome.

Conclusions:

COVID-19 diagnosis in cancer patients may affect their short-term OS, especially in case of interruption/starting failure of cancer therapy. Maintaining/delaying cancer therapy seems not to influence the outcome in selected patients with recent COVID-19 diagnosis.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 爆发对癌症患者的临床影响：一项回顾性研究

背景：

冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 是一种由新型严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 (SARS-CoV-2) 引起的急性呼吸系统综合症，已在全球迅速传播，严重影响癌症患者等高度脆弱群体的预后。本研究的目的是评估 COVID-19 感染对癌症患者预后和肿瘤治疗的临床影响。

患者及方法：

我们回顾性招募了 2020 年 2 月至 2020 年 4 月入住我们中心的实验室和/或放射学确诊的 SARS-CoV-2 感染的癌症患者。使用描述性统计数据总结临床数据，并进行单变量分析以研究抗癌治疗的影响COVID-19 爆发对短期总生存期 (OS) 的影响。

结果：

在入组的 61 名患者中，49 名（80%）正在接受抗癌治疗，41 名（67%）患有转移性疾病。大多数患者是男性；中位年龄为 68 岁。中位 OS 为 46.6 天（40% 的死亡发生在 COVID-19 诊断后的 20 天内）。在 59 名有治疗过程可用数据的患者中，46 名患者的抗癌治疗计划受到影响。肿瘤治疗的中断或开始失败与显着缩短的 OS 相关。抗癌治疗延迟不会对 OS 产生负面影响。COVID 后出现淋巴细胞减少症与最坏结果显着相关。

结论：

癌症患者的 COVID-19 诊断可能会影响他们的短期 OS，尤其是在癌症治疗中断/开始失败的情况下。维持/延迟癌症治疗似乎不会影响最近诊断为 COVID-19 的选定患者的结果。