Clinical outcome and characteristics of Turkish breast cancer patients during SARS-Cov-2 pandemic: Single center experience.

Abstract

e13049 Background: COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented burden on health care system. Patients with cancer are reported to have a higher risk of infection and a more complicated COVID-19 course. Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women in Turkey. We aimed to evaluate the clinical outcome of breast cancer patients who had a diagnosis of COVID-19. Methods: Medical records of breast cancer patients who had COVID-19 between July 2020-2021 at our center were retrospectively rewieved. We recorded pathological, clinical, treatment characteristics, and the clinical outcome of COVID-19 infection. Results: A total 82 breast cancer (BC) patients had COVID-19 between July 2020-2021. All patients were female, with a median age of 49 (43-64 years). Eighty-five % of all patients had early and 14.6% had advanced stage BC. COVID-19 had a mild clinical course in 73%, hospitalization was required in 27% of patients. Twenty-five patients who required hospitalization were discharged. Three (3,6%) patients who had heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer, required ICU and died due to COVID-19. Metastatic disease (p 0.002) and chemotherapy within 7 days of COVID-19 diagnosis (p = 0.024) have been associated with increased mortality. Conclusions: In our breast cancer cohort, most patients had a mild COVID-19 course. Advanced disease and chemotherapy within 7 days of diagnosis were the two risk factors for increased mortality.