ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 in a large cohort of new cancer patients referred to an oncology clinic in the north of Iran. METHODS: During the 20-month COVID-19 pandemic, new cancer patients were followed-up. Demographic, pathologic, and clinical variables were collected for each patient. COVID-19 was confirmed based on a positive polymerase chain reaction test. Analyses were performed using the STATA version 14.0 at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: In this study, 1294 new cancer patients were followed for 24 months (mean age: 58.7 years [range 10-95]). During the study period, COVID-19 was diagnosed in 9.4% of the patients with hospitalization rate of 3.4%, an ICU admission rate of 0.7%, and COVID-19 mortality rate of 4.9%. Hematological malignancies (ORU= 2.6, CI95% 1.28-5.34), receiving palliative treatments (ORA=3.03, CI95% 1.6-5.45) and receiving radiotherapy (ORA=2.07, 1.17-3.65) were the most common predictive factors of COVID infection in cancer patients. Also, the COVID mortality was higher in brain cancer patients (p = 0.07), metastatic disease (p = 0.01) and patients receiving palliative treatments (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: In patients suffering from cancer, COVID-19 infection can be predicted by cancer type, palliative care, and radiotherapy in cancer patients. Furthermore, brain cancers, metastasis, and palliative care were all associated with COVID-19-related mortality.