The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a major cause of morbidity/mortality worldwide, overstressing health systems. Multiple myeloma (MM) patients show an increased risk for infections and they are expected to be particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here we have obtained a comprehensive picture of the impact of COVID-19 in MM patients on a local and a global scale using a federated data research network (TriNetX) that provided access to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) from Health Care Organizations (HCO) all over the world. Through propensity score matched analyses we found that the number of new diagnoses of MM was reduced in 2020 compared to 2019 (RR 0.86, 95%CI 0.76–0.96) and the survival of newly diagnosed MM cases decreased similarly (HR 0.61, 0.38–0.81). MM patients showed higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (RR 2.09, 1.58–2.76) and a higher excess mortality in 2020 (difference in excess mortality 9%, 4.4–13.2) than non-MM patients. By interrogating large EMR datasets from HCO in Europe and globally, we confirmed that MM patients have been more severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic than non-MM patients. This study highlights the necessity of extending preventive measures worlwide to protect vulnerable patients from SARS-CoV-2 infection by promoting social distancing and an intensive vaccination strategies.

COVID-19 大流行已成为全球发病/死亡的主要原因，给卫生系统带来了过大的压力。多发性骨髓瘤 (MM) 患者的感染风险增加，预计他们特别容易受到 SARS-CoV-2 感染。在这里，我们使用联合数据研究网络 (TriNetX) 全面了解了 COVID-19 对本地和全球范围内的 MM 患者的影响，该网络提供对医疗保健组织 (HCO) 的电子病历 (EMR) 的访问世界各地的。通过倾向评分匹配分析，我们发现，与 2019 年相比，2020 年新诊断 MM 的数量有所减少（RR 0.86，95%CI 0.76–0.96），新诊断 MM 病例的生存率也同样下降（HR 0.61，0.38–0.81） ）。与非多发性骨髓瘤患者相比，多发性骨髓瘤患者感染 SARS-CoV-2 的风险更高（RR 2.09，1.58-2.76），2020 年超额死亡率也更高（超额死亡率差异 9%，4.4-13.2）。通过查询欧洲和全球 HCO 的大型 EMR 数据集，我们确认，多发性骨髓瘤患者比非多发性骨髓瘤患者受到 COVID-19 大流行的影响更严重。这项研究强调了在全球范围内扩大预防措施的必要性，通过促进社交距离和强化疫苗接种策略来保护弱势患者免受 SARS-CoV-2 感染。