Incidence of SARS-COV-2 infection incancer patients undergoing active treatment

ABSTRACT

Introduction and Objectives: Cancer patients are more susceptible to infections because of the active treatmentthat they need to treat their disease. A new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, has caused a global pandemic wherecancer patients have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19. However, the incidencedata of COVID-19 in cancer patient with active treatment are not known, although the main oncology societiesrecommend a delay and/or stop in active cancer treatment during this pandemic. Whether this stop will have animpact on the future evolution of their disease is also not known. Therefore, a study of the incidence of COVID-19 inthis type of patient can help us to organize the protocols and the treatment in these high-risk patient group. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective clinical study of cancer patients within active treatment(chemotherapy, palliative hormonotherapy, radiotherapy, target therapies, or immunotherapy), analyzing the numberof COVID-19 diagnoses between February 26 and May 13 in two oncology services of the Andalusian community. Adescriptive analysis of 692 patients with active treatment was carried out. In addition, the cumulative incidence andthe differences between groups were calculated using the SPSS vs 18. Results: A total of 692 cancer patients undergoing active treatment at the Hospital Costa del Sol (Marbella) and atthe Hospital San Cecilio (Granada) were analyzed. Sixty four percent were men with a mean age of 60 years. Fortyone percent had a breast cancer diagnosis, 12.9% had lung cancer, and 14.5% had colorectal tumor. Fifty threepercent of them received treatment for stage IV disease, and up to 43% were delayed treatment due to pandemic.The total number of infections was 9, a cumulative incidence of 1.3%, 95% CI (0.384-2.217), and 22% of them diedafter developing the infection. Advanced age (p = 0.011), an admission in the 3 months prior to the diagnosis ofCOVID-19 (p = 0.031), and active treatment with chemotherapy (p = 0.003) were the factors that were associated with an increased risk of developing COVID-19. Conclusions: The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in cancer patients on active treatment is low but the mortality is high, as previously reported for these patients. Given that the incidence of COVID-19 in patients with treatment is low, wecannot conclude any role of treatment delay in the development of COVID-19 in these patients..