Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul 8;12(7):1841.
doi: 10.3390/cancers12071841.

Presenting Features and Early Mortality from SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Cancer Patients during the Initial Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe

David J Pinato  1 , Alvin J X Lee  2 , Federica Biello  3 , Elia Seguí  4 , Juan Aguilar-Company  5   6 , Anna Carbó  7 , Riccardo Bruna  8 , Mark Bower  9 , Gianpiero Rizzo  10 , Sarah Benafif  2 , Carme Carmona  7 , Neha Chopra  2 , Claudia Andrea Cruz  4 , Francesca D'Avanzo  3 , Joanne S Evans  1 , Myria Galazi  2 , Isabel Garcia-Fructuoso  7 , Alessia Dalla Pria  9 , Thomas Newsom-Davis  9 , Diego Ottaviani  2 , Andrea Patriarca  8 , Roxana Reyes  4 , Rachel Sharkey  8 , Christopher C T Sng  2 , Yien Ning Sophia Wong  2 , Daniela Ferrante  11 , Lorenza Scotti  12 , Gian Carlo Avanzi  13 , Mattia Bellan  13 , Luigi Mario Castello  13 , Javier Marco-Hernández  14 , Meritxell Mollà  15 , Mario Pirisi  13 , Isabel Ruiz-Camps  6 , Pier Paolo Sainaghi  13 , Gianluca Gaidano  8 , Joan Brunet  7 , Josep Tabernero  5 , Aleix Prat  4   16 , Alessandra Gennari  3
Affiliations

Presenting Features and Early Mortality from SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Cancer Patients during the Initial Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe

David J Pinato et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

We describe the outcomes in cancer patients during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 in Europe from the retrospective, multi-center observational OnCovid study. We identified 204 cancer patients from eight centers in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain aged > 18 (mean = 69) and diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 26th and April 1st, 2020. A total of 127 (62%) were male, 184 (91%) had a diagnosis of solid malignancy, and 103 (51%) had non-metastatic disease. A total of 161 (79%) had > 1 co-morbidity. A total of 141 (69%) patients had > 1 COVID-19 complication. A total of 36 (19%) were escalated to high-dependency or intensive care. A total of 59 (29%) died, 53 (26%) were discharged, and 92 (45%) were in-hospital survivors. Mortality was higher in patients aged > 65 (36% versus 16%), in those with > 2 co-morbidities (40% versus 18%) and developing > 1 complication from COVID-19 (38% versus 4%, p = 0.004). Multi-variable analyses confirmed age > 65 and > 2 co-morbidities to predict for patient mortality independent of tumor stage, active malignancy, or anticancer therapy. During the early outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Europe co-morbid burden and advancing age predicted for adverse disease course in cancer patients. The ongoing OnCovid study will allow us to compare risks and outcomes in cancer patients between the initial and later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cancer; coronavirus; mortality; outcomes; survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

D.J.P. received lecture fees from ViiV Healthcare, Bayer Healthcare, and travel expenses from BMS and Bayer Healthcare; consulting fees for Mina Therapeutics, EISAI, Roche, Astra Zeneca; received research funding (to institution) from MSD, BMS. AP has declared personal honoraria from Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, MSD Oncology, Lilly and Daiichi Sankyo, travel, accommodations and expenses paid by Daiichi Sankyo, research funding from Roche and Novartis, consulting/advisory role for NanoString Technologies, Amgen, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. There are no other conflicts of interest to report. T.N.-D has declared consulting/advisory role for Amgen, Bayer, AstraZeneca, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli-Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Takeda; speakers fees from AstraZeneca, MSD, Roche, Takeda, and travel, accommodations and expenses paid by AstraZenca, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly, MSD, Otsuka, Roche, Takeda. J.B. has declared consulting/advisory role for MSD and Astra Zeneca. G.G. has declared consulting/advisory role for Janssen, Abbvie, Astra-Zeneca, Sunesys and speakers bureau for Abbvie, Janssen. P.P.S. has declared consulting/advisory role for Sanofi and Abbvie; A.P. (Andrea Patriarca) has declared consulting/advisory role for Takeda and Sanofi; M.P. has declared consulting/advisory role for Gilead and Bayer; A.G. has declared consulting/advisory role for Roche, MSD, Eli Lilly, Pierre Fabre, EISAI, Daichii Sankyo; Speakers Bureau Eisai, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Roche, Teva, Gentili, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Celgene, Daichii Sankyo, Research Funds: EISAI, Eli Lilly, Roche. Funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The relationship between mortality from COVID-19 and (A) baseline patient features and (B) complications from SARS-Cov-2 infection. * indicates p < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chen N., Zhou M., Dong X., Qu J., Gong F., Han Y., Qiu Y., Wang J., Liu Y., Wei Y., et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: A descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395:507–513. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30211-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lake M.A. What we know so far: COVID-19 current clinical knowledge and research. Clin. Med. (Lond.) 2020;20:124–127. doi: 10.7861/clinmed.2019-coron. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Huang C., Wang Y., Li X., Ren L., Zhao J., Hu Y., Zhang L., Fan G., Xu J., Gu X., et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020;395:497–506. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Garassino M.C., Whisenant J.G., Huang L.C., Trama A., Torri V., Agustoni F., Baena J., Banna G., Berardi R., Bettini A.C., et al. COVID-19 in patients with thoracic malignancies (TERAVOLT): First results of an international, registry-based, cohort study. Lancet Oncol. 2020 doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30314-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dai M., Liu D., Liu M., Zhou F., Li G., Chen Z., Zhang Z., You H., Wu M., Zheng Q., et al. Patients with Cancer Appear More Vulnerable to SARS-COV-2: A Multicenter Study during the COVID-19 Outbreak. Cancer Discov. 2020 doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-0422. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources