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. 2020 Jul;16(20):1425-1432.
doi: 10.2217/fon-2020-0369. Epub 2020 May 14.

Coronavirus disease-2019 in cancer patients. A report of the first 25 cancer patients in a western country (Italy)

Elisa Maria Stroppa  1 , Ilaria Toscani  1 , Chiara Citterio  1 , Elisa Anselmi  1 , Elena Zaffignani  1 , Mauro Codeluppi  2 , Luigi Cavanna  1
Affiliations

Coronavirus disease-2019 in cancer patients. A report of the first 25 cancer patients in a western country (Italy)

Elisa Maria Stroppa et al. Future Oncol. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Background: We describe cancer patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection treated at the Piacenza's general hospital (north Italy). Materials & methods: 25 cancer patients infected by COVID-19 admitted at the Piacenza's general hospital from 21 February to 18 March 2020. Outcome from the infection were compared with infected noncancer patients. Results: 20 patients (80%) were treated with antiviral therapy and hydroxychloroquine and five (20%) received hydroxychloroquine alone. Nine (36%) patients died, while 16 (64%) overcome the infection. In the control group the mortality was 16.13% and the overcome from infection was 83.87%. Conclusion: Mortality for COVID-19 was greater in cancer patients when compared with noncancer patients, worse prognosis for older age, women and patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. However, the comparisons did not reach statistical significance in most cases. This could be due to the small sample size that is the main limitation of the study.

Keywords: cancer patients and COVID-19; cobicistat; darunavir; hydroxychloroquine; infection and cancer; lopinavir; oncology and coronavirus; ritonavir.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Bilateral interstitial pneumonia in a patient with esophageal cancer.
Chest x-ray of a 70-year-old male with advanced esophageal cancer receiving FOLFIRI chemotherapy and COVID-19 infection: presence of bilateral interstitial thickening at the middle and lower pulmonary fields, particularly on the right side (arrow).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Bilateral pneumonia in a patient with lung cancer.
A 64-year-old male with lung squamous cell carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab and COVID-19 infection: (A) chest CT performed 14-days before infection shows no infiltrates, while (B) CT at the admission shows bilateral rounded ground-glass opacities (arrows).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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