ABSTRACT
Background: The impact of active cancer on susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains controversial. This study leverages the infrastructure across the University of California (UC) Cancer Consortium, pooling electronic health record (EHR) data to assess the relationship between active cancer diagnoses (n=151,392) and COVID-19 positivity. Methods: In this cohort study, patients with COVID-19 test results and active cancer diagnoses were identified from the UC Health System COVID Research Data Set (CORDS). This data set collects COVID-19 test results from the 5 academic medical centers in the UC Health System and their NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. COVID-19 test results were identified by Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC). Active cancer was defined as an EHR-based malignant diagnosis within 9 months of testing, irrespective of active therapy. Total daily positivity rates were aggregated, and overall rates were compared across patients with and without active cancer using the Pearson’s Chi-squared test. Results: We identified 1,032,588 COVID-19 tests from March 3, 2020 to April 15, 2021, with 151,392 tests (14.7%) associated with an active cancer diagnosis. Monthly trends in positivity rates throughout the pandemic were similar between patients with and without cancer (Table). Overall positivity was lower in patients with active cancer (2.0% versus 4.4%;p<0.001). This was consistent across individual UC sites. [Formula presented] Conclusions: COVID-19 positivity rates were not increased for individuals with active cancer diagnoses in the UC Cancer Consortium. A lower positivity rate amongst cancer patients may be due to demographic, behavioral, occupational or environmental factors, as well as greater asymptomatic testing of cancer patients at some UC sites. Interactions with local prevalence and patient and cancer characteristics will be presented. Legal entity responsible for the study: The authors. Funding: Has not received any funding. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.