SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in patients with hairy-cell leukaemia.

Little is known of the course of COVID-19 and the antibody response to infection or vaccination in patients with hairy-cell leukaemia (HCL). Among a total of 58 HCL cases we studied in these regards, 37 unvaccinated patients, mostly enjoying a relatively long period free from anti-leukaemic treatment, developed COVID-19 between March 2020 and December 2021 with a usually favourable outcome (fatality rate: 5/37, 14%); however, active leukaemia, older age and more comorbidities were associated with a worse course. Postinfection (n = 11 cases) and postvaccination (n = 28) seroconversion consistently developed, except after recent anti-CD20 or venetoclax therapy, correlating with perivaccine B-cell count. Vaccination appeared to protect from severe COVID-19 in 11 patients with breakthrough infection.

SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: The Italian Hematology Alliance on COVID-19 cohort.

COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, is still afflicting thousands of people across the globe. Few studies on COVID-19 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are available. Here, we analyzed data from the CLL cohort of the Italian Hematology Alliance on COVID-19 (NCT04352556), which included 256 CLL patients enrolled between 25 February 2020 and 1 February 2021. Median age was 70 years (range 38-94) with male preponderance (60.1%). Approximately half of patients (n = 127) had received at least one line of therapy for CLL, including 108 (83.7%) who were on active treatment at the time of COVID-19 or received their last therapy within 12 months. Most patients (230/256, 89.9%) were symptomatic at COVID-19 diagnosis and the majority required hospitalization (n = 176). Overall, after a median follow-up of 42 days (IQR 24-96), case fatality rate was 30.1%, and it was 37.5% and 24.4% in the first (25 February 2020-22 June 2020) and second wave (23 June 2020-1 February 2021), respectively (p = 0.03). At multivariate analysis, male sex (HR 1.82, 95% CI 1.03-3.24, p = 0.04), age over than 70 years (HR 2.23, 95% CI 1.23-4.05, p = 0.01), any treatment for CLL given in the last 12 months (HR 1.72, 95% CI 1.04-2.84, p = 0.04) and COVID-19 severity (severe: HR 5.66, 95% CI 2.62-12.33, p < 0.0001; critical: HR 15.99, 95% CI 6.93-36.90, p < 0.0001) were independently associated with poor survival. In summary, we report a dismal COVID-related outcome in a significant fraction of CLL patients, that can be nicely predicted by clinical parameters.

High rate of durable responses with undetectable minimal residual disease with frontline venetoclax and rituximab in young and fit patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and an adverse biologic profile: results of the GIMEMA phase II LLC1518 - 'Veritas' study.

The GIMEMA phase II LLC1518 VERITAS trial investigated the efficacy and safety of frontline, fixed-duration venetoclax and rituximab (VenR) combination in young (≤65 years) and fit patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and unmutated IGHV and/or TP53 disruption. Treatment consisted of the Ven ramp-up, six-monthly courses of the VenR combination, followed by six monthly courses of Ven single agent. A centralized assessment of measurable minimal residual disease (MRD) was performed on the peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) by ASO-PCR at the end of treatment (EOT) and during the follow-up. The primary endpoint was the complete remission (CR) rate at the EOT. Seventy-five patients were enrolled; the median age was 54 years (range 38-65), 96% had unmutated IGHV, 9 (12%) had TP53 disruption, and 4% were IGHV mutated with TP53 disruption. The overall response rate (ORR) at the EOT was 94.7%, with a CR rate of 76%. An undetectable (u) MRD was recorded in 69.3% of patients in the PB and 58.7% in the BM. The 12-month MRD-free survival in the 52 patients with uMRD in the PB at the EOT was 73.1%. After a median follow-up of 20.8 months, no disease progressions were observed. Three patients have died, two due to Covid-19 and 1 to tumor lysis syndrome. The first report of the VERITAS study shows that frontline VenR was associated with a high rate of CRs and durable responses with uMRD in young patients with CLL and unfavorable genetic characteristics.

Lack of efficacy of convalescent plasma in COVID-19 patients with concomitant hematological malignancies: An Italian retrospective study.

A multicenter retrospective study was designed to assess clinical outcome of COVID-19 in patients with hematological malignancies (HM) following treatment with anti-SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma (CP) or standard of care therapy. To this aim, a propensity score matching was used to assess the role of non-randomized administration of CP in this high-risk cohort of patients from the Italian Hematology Alliance on COVID-19 (ITA-HEMA-COV) project, now including 2049 untreated control patients. We investigated 30- and 90-day mortality, rate of admission to intensive care unit, proportion of patients requiring mechanical ventilatory support, hospitalization time, and SARS-CoV-2 clearance in 79 CP recipients and compared results with 158 propensity score-matched controls. Results indicated a lack of efficacy of CP in the study group compared with the untreated group, thus confirming the negative results obtained from randomized studies in immunocompetent individuals with COVID-19. In conclusion, this retrospective analysis did not meet the primary and secondary end points in any category of immunocompromized patients affected by HM.

Secondary infections worsen the outcome of COVID-19 in patients with hematological malignancies: A report from the ITA-HEMA-COV.

The impact of secondary infections (SI) on COVID-19 outcome in patients with hematological malignancies (HM) is scarcely documented. To evaluate incidence, clinical characteristics, and outcome of SI, we analyzed the microbiologically documented SI in a large multicenter cohort of adult HM patients with COVID-19. Among 1741 HM patients with COVID-19, 134 (7.7%) had 185 SI, with a 1-month cumulative incidence of 5%. Median time between COVID-19 diagnosis and SI was 16 days (IQR: 5-36). Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and lymphoma/plasma cell neoplasms (PCN) were more frequent diagnoses in SI patients compared to patients without SI (AML: 14.9% vs. 7.1%; lymphoma/PCN 71.7% vs. 65.3%). Patients with SI were older (median age 70 vs. 66 years, p = 0.002), with more comorbidities (median Charlson Comorbidity Index 5 vs. 4, p < 0.001), higher frequency of critical COVID-19 (19.5% vs. 11.5%, p = 0.046), and more frequently not in complete remission (75% vs. 64.7% p = 0.024). Blood and bronchoalveolar lavage were the main sites of isolation for SI. Etiology of infections was bacterial in 80% (n = 148) of cases, mycotic in 9.7% (n = 18) and viral in 10.3% (n = 19); polymicrobial infections were observed in 24 patients (18%). Escherichia coli represented most of Gram-negative isolates (18.9%), while coagulase-negative Staphylococci were the most frequent among Gram-positive (14.2%). The 30-day mortality of patients with SI was higher when compared to patients without SI (69% vs. 15%, p < 0.001). The occurrence of SI worsened COVID-19 outcome in HM patients. Timely diagnosis and adequate management should be considered to improve their prognosis.

Patterns of neutralizing humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 infection among hematologic malignancy patients reveal a robust immune response in anti-cancer therapy-naive patients.

Understanding antibody-based SARS-CoV-2 immunity in hematologic malignancy (HM) patients following infection is crucial to inform vaccination strategies for this highly vulnerable population. This cross-sectional study documents the anti-SARS-CoV-2 humoral response and serum neutralizing activity in 189 HM patients recovering from a PCR-confirmed infection. The overall seroconversion rate was 85.7%, with the lowest values in patients with lymphoid malignancies or undergoing chemotherapy. Therapy-naive patients in the "watch and wait" status were more likely to seroconvert and display increased anti-s IgG titers. Enhanced serum neutralizing activity was observed in the following SARS-CoV-2-infected HM patient groups: (i) males; (ii) severe COVID-19; and (iii) "watch and wait" or "complete/partial response". The geometric mean (GeoMean) ID50 neutralization titers in patients analyzed before or after 6 months post-infection were 299.1 and 306.3, respectively, indicating that >50% of the patients in either group had a neutralization titer sufficient to provide 50% protection from symptomatic COVID-19. Altogether, our findings suggest that therapy-naive HM patients mount a far more robust immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection vs. patients receiving anti-cancer treatment, raising the important question as to whether HM patients should be vaccinated before therapy and/or receive vaccine formats capable of better recapitulating the natural infection.

A prognostic model for patients with lymphoma and COVID-19: a multicentre cohort study.

Lymphoma represents a heterogeneous hematological malignancy (HM), which is characterized by severe immunosuppression. Patients diagnosed of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the course of HM have been described to have poor outcome, with only few reports specifically addressing lymphoma patients. Here, we investigated the clinical behavior and clinical parameters of a large multicenter cohort of adult patients with different lymphoma subtypes, with the aim of identifying predictors of death. The study included 856 patients, of whom 619 were enrolled prospectively in a 1-year frame and were followed-up for a median of 66 days (range 1-395). Patients were managed as outpatient (not-admitted cohort, n = 388) or required hospitalization (n = 468), and median age was 63 years (range 19-94). Overall, the 30- and 100-days mortality was 13% (95% confidence interval (CI), 11% to 15%) and 23% (95% CI, 20% to 27%), respectively. Antilymphoma treatment, including anti-CD20 containing regimens, did not impact survival. Patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma had the more favorable survival, but this was partly related to significantly younger age. The time interval between lymphoma diagnosis and COVID-19 was inversely related to mortality. Multivariable analysis recognized 4 easy-to-use factors (age, gender, lymphocyte, and platelet count) that were associated with risk of death, both in the admitted and in the not-admitted cohort (HR 3.79 and 8.85 for the intermediate- and high-risk group, respectively). Overall, our study shows that patients should not be deprived of the best available treatment of their underlying disease and indicates which patients are at higher risk of death. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04352556.

COVID-19 elicits an impaired antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with haematological malignancies.

COVID-19 is associated with high mortality in patients with haematological malignancies (HM) and rate of seroconversion is unknown. The ITA-HEMA-COV project (NCT04352556) investigated patterns of seroconversion for SARS-CoV-2 IgG in patients with HMs. A total of 237 patients, SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive with at least one SARS-CoV-2 IgG test performed during their care, entered the analysis. Among these, 62 (26·2%) had myeloid, 121 (51·1%) lymphoid and 54 (22·8%) plasma cell neoplasms. Overall, 69% of patients (164 of 237) had detectable IgG SARS-CoV-2 serum antibodies. Serologically negative patients (31%, 73 of 237) were evenly distributed across patients with myeloid, lymphoid and plasma cell neoplasms. In the multivariable logistic regression, chemoimmunotherapy [odds ratio (OR), 3·42; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1·04-11·21; P = 0·04] was associated with a lower rate of seroconversion. This effect did not decline after 180 days from treatment withdrawal (OR, 0·35; 95% CI: 0·11-1·13; P = 0·08). This study demonstrates a low rate of seroconversion in HM patients and indicates that treatment-mediated immune dysfunction is the main driver. As a consequence, we expect a low rate of seroconversion after vaccination and thus we suggest testing the efficacy of seroconversion in HM patients.

Clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with COVID-19 severity in patients with haematological malignancies in Italy: a retrospective, multicentre, cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Several small studies on patients with COVID-19 and haematological malignancies are available showing a high mortality in this population. The Italian Hematology Alliance on COVID-19 aimed to collect data from adult patients with haematological malignancies who required hospitalisation for COVID-19. METHODS: This multicentre, retrospective, cohort study included adult patients (aged ≥18 years) with diagnosis of a WHO-defined haematological malignancy admitted to 66 Italian hospitals between Feb 25 and May 18, 2020, with laboratory-confirmed and symptomatic COVID-19. Data cutoff for this analysis was June 22, 2020. The primary outcome was mortality and evaluation of potential predictive parameters of mortality. We calculated standardised mortality ratios between observed death in the study cohort and expected death by applying stratum-specific mortality rates of the Italian population with COVID-19 and an Italian cohort of 31 993 patients with haematological malignancies without COVID-19 (data up to March 1, 2019). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify factors associated with overall survival. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04352556, and the prospective part of the study is ongoing. FINDINGS: We enrolled 536 patients with a median follow-up of 20 days (IQR 10-34) at data cutoff, 85 (16%) of whom were managed as outpatients. 440 (98%) of 451 hospitalised patients completed their hospital course (were either discharged alive or died). 198 (37%) of 536 patients died. When compared with the general Italian population with COVID-19, the standardised mortality ratio was 2·04 (95% CI 1·77-2·34) in our whole study cohort and 3·72 (2·86-4·64) in individuals younger than 70 years. When compared with the non-COVID-19 cohort with haematological malignancies, the standardised mortality ratio was 41·3 (38·1-44·9). Older age (hazard ratio 1·03, 95% CI 1·01-1·05); progressive disease status (2·10, 1·41-3·12); diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (3·49, 1·56-7·81), indolent non-Hodgin lymphoma (2·19, 1·07-4·48), aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (2·56, 1·34-4·89), or plasma cell neoplasms (2·48, 1·31-4·69), and severe or critical COVID-19 (4·08, 2·73-6·09) were associated with worse overall survival. INTERPRETATION: This study adds to the evidence that patients with haematological malignancies have worse outcomes than both the general population with COVID-19 and patients with haematological malignancies without COVID-19. The high mortality among patients with haematological malignancies hospitalised with COVID-19 highlights the need for aggressive infection prevention strategies, at least until effective vaccination or treatment strategies are available. FUNDING: Associazione italiana contro le leucemie, linfomi e mieloma-Varese Onlus.