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. 2021 Feb;93(2):1099-1104.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.26404. Epub 2020 Aug 26.

The outcome of COVID-19 in patients with hematological malignancy

Tugce N Yigenoglu  1 , Naim Ata  2 , Fevzi Altuntas  1 , Semih Bascı  1 , Mehmet Sinan Dal  1 , Serdal Korkmaz  3 , Sinem Namdaroglu  4 , Abdulkadir Basturk  5 , Tuba Hacıbekiroglu  6 , Mehmet H Dogu  7 , İlhami Berber  8 , Kursat Dal  9 , Mehmet A Erkurt  8 , Burhan Turgut  10 , Mustafa Mahir Ulgu  11 , Osman Celik  12 , Ersan Imrat  11 , Suayip Birinci  13
Affiliations

The outcome of COVID-19 in patients with hematological malignancy

Tugce N Yigenoglu et al. J Med Virol. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

In this study, we aim to report the outcomes for COVID-19 in patients with hematological malignancy in Turkey. Data from laboratory-confirmed 188 897 COVID-19 patients diagnosed between 11 March 2020 and 22 June 2020 included in the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Health database were analyzed retrospectively. All COVID-19 patients with hematological malignancy (n = 740) were included in the study and an age, sex, and comorbidity-matched cohort of COVID-19 patients without cancer (n = 740) at a 1:1 ratio was used for comparison. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (30.1%), myelodysplastic syndrome (19.7%), myeloproliferative neoplasm (15.7%) were the most common hematological malignancies. The rates of severe and critical disease were significantly higher in patients with hematological malignancy compared with patients without cancer (P = .001). The rates of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admission were higher in patients with hematological malignancy compared with the patients without cancer (P = .023, P = .001, respectively). The length of hospital stay and ICU stay was similar between groups (P = .7, P = .3, retrospectively). The rate of mechanical ventilation (MV) support was higher in patients with hematological malignancy compared with the control group (P = .001). The case fatality rate was 13.8% in patients with hematological malignancy, and it was 6.8% in the control group (P = .001). This study reveals that there is an increased risk of COVID-19-related serious events (ICU admission, MV support, or death) in patients with hematological malignancy compared with COVID-19 patients without cancer and confirms the high vulnerability of patients with hematological malignancy in the current pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; hematological malignancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

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