ABSTRACT
Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate chemotherapy agents used in the coronavirus disease-19 (CO?VID-19) pandemic and previous years and compare mortality rates of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who were receiving anticancer therapy. Methods: Patients were analyzed retrospectively in three different groups;the first group (December 1, 2017-May 31, 2018), the second group (December 1, 2018-May 31, 2019), and the pandemic period group (PPG) (December 1, 2019- May 31, 2020). Results: A total of 608 NSCLC patients were evaluated, 183 in the first group, 206 in the second group, and 219 in the PPG. Palliative anticancer therapy rates were 85.2% in the first group, 87.7% in the second group, and 74.4% in the PPG (p<0.001), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of the pre?ferred treatment agents. Mortality rate was found to be 21.9% in the PPG, and it was not significantly different from the other groups (p=0.959). The type of anticancer treatment agents had no statistically significant effect on mortality. The COVID-19-positive mortality rate among all NSCLC patients was 1.8% (4/219) in the PPG. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly change mortality rates compared to previous years in this high?risk patient population.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the mortality rates in patients receiving anticancer therapy in the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic period. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Department of Medical Oncology, Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital, Sakarya, Turkey, from December 2017 to May 2020. METHODOLOGY: Only patients who received chemotherapy and immunotherapy were selected and enrolled in the study. All patients (n=3,204) were divided into three groups, namely the first group (1st December 2017-31st May 2018, n=918), second group (1st December 2018-31st May 2019, n=1,147), and the pandemic period group (PPG) (1st December 2019-31st May 2020, n=1,139), according to the period during which they received anticancer treatment. The clinical and demographic characteristics and mortality rates of these three groups of patients were compared. RESULTS: The median age of the total of 3,204 patients was 61 (53-69). In this study, 51.1% (n=1,636) were females and 48.9% were males. The mortality rates were 13.5% (n=124) in the first group, 13.4% (n=154) in the second group, and 13.0% (n=148) in the PPG, respectively. Overall mortality rates did not differ among patients with cancer in the three different six-month periods analysed (p = 0.931). CONCLUSION: There was no unexpected increased in mortality rate among patients undergoing cancer therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to the previous years of the same timeline. No increase in monthly mortality rates among patients receiving anti-cancer treatment were demonstrated during the pandemic period.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/epidemiology , Neoplasms/therapy , Pandemics , Aged , Combined Modality Therapy , Comorbidity , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasms/mortality , Prognosis , Retrospective Studies , SARS-CoV-2 , Survival Rate/trends , Turkey/epidemiologyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute inflammatory respiratory disease. Osteopontin (OPN) is a glycoprotein expressed in various cell types, such as bone, immune, smooth muscle, epithelial and endothelial cells. It also acts as a regulator of immune response. The aim of the present study was to reveal the place of serum osteopontin levels in predicting severity among patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This study included 84 patients, 43 female and 45 male. Patients were divided into 2 groups, group 1 non-severe group (n: 48), group 2 severe (n: 40). Demographic data, neutrophil, lymphocyte, platelet, white blood cell counts, albumin, procalcitonin, Creactive protein (CRP) and OPN levels were recorded. The OPN levels and these inflammatory parameters of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in terms of gender (female/male 25/23 vs. 18/22) and platelet count (178â¯K/µL vs. 191â¯K/µL) between the groups (pâ¯> 0.05). Ages (57.7⯱ 17.0 years vs. 71.4⯱ 12.8 years), procalcitonin (0.07 vs. 0.24â¯ng/mL), CRP (17 vs 158â¯mg/l), neutrophil count (3.7 vs 5.64â¯K/µL), WBC counts (5.38 vs 7.85â¯K/µL) and number of deaths (0 vs 26) (pâ¯< 0.001). The OPN levels (98.5 vs 13.75â¯ng/mL, pâ¯= 0.002) were found to be statistically higher, in group 2 than group 1. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that OPN can be used to predict the severity in patients with COVID-19.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Osteopontin , Adult , Aged , Endothelial Cells , Female , Humans , Leukocyte Count , Male , Middle Aged , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Background/aim: In this study, we aim to investigate the efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP) according to blood groups (BGs) in the treatment of critically ill patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Materials and methods: Twenty-eight critically ill and laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Sakarya University, Medical Faculty were included in the study. Patients were divided into 2 groups: patients who received anti-A antibody (Ab) containing CP (BG O and B) and those who did not receive CP containing anti-A Ab (BG A and AB). Results: Among the 28 patients, 13 patients received anti-A Ab containing CP (BG; B: 6, O: 7) and 15 patients did not receive anti-A Ab CP (BG; A: 13, AB: 2). Duration in ICU, the rates of mechanical ventilation (MV) support and vasopressor support, the case fatality rate, and the discharge rate were lower in patients who received CP containing anti-A Ab than not containing anti-A Ab CP. However, only the difference in the rate of MV support achieved statistically significance (P = 0.04) Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that the efficiency of CP without anti-A antibody was lower than that of plasma containing anti-A antibody, although it was not statistically significant. This result is thought to be due to the anti-A antibody's ability to block the ACE2 receptor. We believe that this hypothesis should be investigated in controlled studies with higher patient numbers.