High Expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 at the Resection Margin Makes Lung Cancer Survivors Susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 with Unfavorable Prognosis (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide. Systematic analysis of lung cancer survivors at molecular and clinical levels is warranted to understand the disease course and clinical characteristics. We performed a retrospective study of 65 patients with COVID-19 from Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital, of which 13 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer. Duringtreatment, lung cancer survivors infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 had a shorter median time from symptom onset to hospitalization (P=0.016) and longer clinical symptom remission time (P=0.020) than non-cancer individuals. No differences were observed among indicators such as time from symptom onset to hospitalization and symptom remission time between long-term and short-term survivors. The expression of ACE2(P=0.013) and TMPRSS2(P<0.001) was elevated in lung cancer survivors as compared with that in non-cancer individuals.