Ohio State University, Columbus

- Hematologocial Cancers are types of cancers that affect the blood, including lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma.

Hematological Cancers and COVID-19

 He, W., Chen, L., Chen, L. et al. COVID-19 in persons with haematological cancers. Leukemia 34, 1637–1645 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-020-0836-7

URL: https://rdcu.be/b6jM5

COVID-19 in persons with haematological cancers

- Hematological cancer patients receive drugs which suppress bone marrow function and contribute to higher risk for COVID-19
- COVID-19 development was tracked through CT scans of the lungs as well as COVID-19 swab tests
- In this study, 10% of hospitalized hematological cancer patients developed COVID-19
- Patients which contracted COVID-19 had a median age of 35 and non-COVID-19 patients was 49
- Additionally, during the study 11 healthcare providers were hospitalized and used for comparison in the study (See Table 2)
- Hematological cancer infection rate of COVID-19 is much higher than that of other cancers
- This higher infection rate is likely due to the types of therapy which these patients must undergo

Table 2: Clinical and laboratory co-variates, therapy and outcomes of subjects with haematological cancer and COVID-19.

- This study attempts to analyze how COVID-19 illness affects those with lymphoma based on data gathered on 89 patients with these comorbidities in a database of 12 hospitals located in 3 French regions
- Out of the 89 patients, the mean age was 67 years old and 66% were male
- 72 of the 89 has other significant comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes, and history with previous cancer
- At admission for COVID-19, 40 patients were in complete or partial remission of cancer while 24 were in first or second line therapy, and 13 were relapsed cases of lymphoma
- Common symptoms for these patients upon arrival include dyspnea, cough, fever, and diarrhea
- As of May 26, 2020, 48 patients were discharged, 30 had died, and 11 were still hospitalized
- Most patients required oxygen with a substantial amount, 21, requiring invasive mechanical ventilation
- Survivability of COVID-19 in those who were over the age of 70 was much lower than that of the group under 70
- Patients younger than 70, without relapsed/refractory lymphoma had similar survival rates to that of the general population, while all other groups saw increased rates of mortality

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