Hospitalised individuals with active cancer more likely to die from COVID-19: Study

Patients with blood cancers at the greatest risk of COVID-19 death

A new research has indicated that patients hospitalised with active cancer were more likely to die from COVID-19 than those with a history of cancer or those without any cancer diagnosis. The findings published by Wiley early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, also indicates that those with active blood cancers have the greatest risk of death due to COVID-19.

The researchers found no increased mortality risk in patients who received cancer treatments in the three months (or longer) prior to hospitalisation.

To investigate how cancer, or various therapies used to treat it, can affect the health of patients who develop COVID-19, a team analysed the NYU Langone Medical Center’s records of 4,184 hospitalised patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This group included 233 patients with a current, or “active,” cancer diagnosis. More patients with an active cancer diagnosis (34.3 per cent) were likely to die from COVID-19 than those with a history of cancer (27.6 per cent) and those without any cancer history (20 per cent).

Among patients with active cancer, those with blood-related cancers were at the highest risk of death. Receiving systemic anti-cancer therapy, including chemotherapy, molecularly-targetted therapies and immunotherapy, within three months prior to hospitalisation was not linked to a higher risk of death, and the investigators found no differences based on the types of cancer therapy received.

“We completed a large chart review-based study of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 and found that patients with active cancer, but not a history of cancer, were more likely to die. Notably, however, among those hospitalised with active cancer and COVID-19, recent cancer therapy was not associated with worse outcomes,” said senior author Daniel Becker, MD. “People with active cancer should take precautions against getting COVID-19, including vaccination, but need not avoid therapy for cancer.”