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. 2020 May 18:14:1047.
doi: 10.3332/ecancer.2020.1047. eCollection 2020.

Cancer is associated with severe disease in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Richard Ofori-Asenso  1   2 , Oyepeju Ogundipe  3 , Akosua Adom Agyeman  4 , Ken Lee Chin  1   5 , Mohsen Mazidi  6 , Zanfina Ademi  1 , Marie Louise De Bruin  2 , Danny Liew  1
Affiliations

Cancer is associated with severe disease in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Richard Ofori-Asenso et al. Ecancermedicalscience. .

Abstract

Cancer patients are vulnerable to complications of respiratory viruses. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to examine the prevalence of cancer and its association with disease severity in patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Searches were performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE and ScienceDirect from their inception until 28 April 2020. Severe disease was considered to encompass cases resulting in death or as defined by the primary study authors. Meta-analysis was performed using random-effect models. We included 20 studies involving 32,404 patients from China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Singapore, Thailand, France, India and South Korea. The pooled prevalence of cancer was 3.50% (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.70 to 5.80). The pooled prevalence was not moderated by study mean age, proportion of females or whether the study was conducted in/outside of China. Patients with cancer were more likely to experience severe COVID-19 disease compared to patients without cancer (pooled risk ratio 1.76, 95% CI 1.39 to 2.23). Our findings reiterate the need for additional precautionary measures to ensure that patients with cancer are not exposed to COVID-19, and if they become infected, extra attention should be provided to minimise their risk of adverse outcomes.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS; coronavirus; pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. PRISMA flow chart of studies selection process.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Forest plot of prevalence of cancer among patients infected with COVID-19.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Forest plot of association between cancer and severe disease among COVID-19 patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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