Clinical, Laboratory and Radiologic Course and Prognosis of COVID-19 in Cancer Patients and Comparison with General Population: A Single-Center Experience

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical findings and follow-up data of patients with COVID-19 and had a history of cancer, and compare these data with other COVID-19 patients. We included 2349 COVID-19 inpatients between March 2020 and July 2020. 82 of these patients were found to have a cancer diagnosis (Group 1). Patients undergoing chemotherapy were assigned to group 1A, patients receiving non-chemotherapy treatment were assigned to group 1B, cancer patients without any treatment to group 1C and non-cancer patients to group 2. These groups were compared in terms of basic demographic characteristics, symptoms, comorbidities, laboratory and imaging findings, intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate and death. The median age of the patients in group 1 was statistically higher than group 2 (61 and 52, p< 0.001). The most common cancer diagnosis was breast cancer (n= 16, 19.5%). Inflammatory parameters such as CRP and D-dimer were found to be higher in patients in group 1 than group 2 (p= 0.005 and p= 0.003, respectively). The mortality rate of the patients in group 1 was 15.8%, while the mortality rate in group 2 was 5.1% and this was statistically significantly higher (p< 0.001). Being in group 1 and group 1A were determined as the predictive parameters for death (r= 0.087, p< 0.001 and r: 0.254, p= 0.021 respectively). Our data suggests that history of cancer and active chemotherapy treatment are independent prognostic factors for severe disease and mortality in COVID-19.