ABSTRACT
Background Patients with hematologic malignancies are considered at high risk for COVID 19 infection either from the disease itself or from the treatment. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), among one of the approved therapies for hematologic malignancies, was performed around the world during COVID 19 era with some regulations such as COVID 19 testing before proceeding with transplantation or cellular therapy. Up to authors' knowledge, none have reported the result of autologous HSCT in an active COVID 19 patient. Case Presentation We describe a successful clinical course of autologous bone marrow transplantation for two lymphoma patients tested positive for COVID 19. Thorough discussion between multidisciplinary hemato-oncology, intensive care and infectious diseases teams was done, and the decision was to proceed towards BMT with some modifications in the transplantation protocol and close monitoring for the patients. Conclusions Our cases lend credence that successful autologous BMT is possible among active COVID 19 patients and the obstacles, which we faced, could be overcome with the collaboration between a highly qualified multidisciplinary team. Despite the potential complications, the benefits of bone marrow transplantation among patients with high risk of relapse and still COVID 19 positive outweighs the risks but further studies are still recommended to support our inference.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Patients with hematologic malignancies are considered at high risk for COVID-19 infection either from the disease or the treatment. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, one of the approved therapies for hematologic malignancies, was performed worldwide during the COVID-19 era with some regulations, such as COVID-19 testing, before proceeding with transplantation or cellular therapy. To the authors' knowledge, none have reported the result of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in an active COVID-19 patient. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a successful clinical course of autologous bone marrow transplantation for 2 lymphoma patients who tested positive for COVID-19. A thorough discussion was conducted between multidisciplinary hemato-oncology, intensive care, and infectious diseases teams. The decision was to proceed toward bone marrow transplantation with some modifications in the transplantation protocol and close patient monitoring. CONCLUSION: Our cases lend credence that successful autologous bone marrow transplantation is possible among active COVID-19 patients. The obstacles we faced could be overcome with collaboration between a highly qualified multidisciplinary team. Despite the potential complications, the benefits of bone marrow transplantation among patients with a high risk of relapse and who are still COVID-19-positive outweigh the risks. However, further studies are still recommended to support our inference.