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. 2021 Nov 15;127(22):4240-4248.
doi: 10.1002/cncr.33832. Epub 2021 Aug 3.

Higher severity and risk of in-hospital mortality for COVID-19 patients with cancer during the year 2020 in Brazil: A countrywide analysis of secondary data

Guilherme Jorge Costa  1   2 , Carla Rameri Alexandre Silva de Azevedo  3   4 , José Iran Costa Júnior  3   4 , Anke Bergmann  5 , Luiz Claudio Santos Thuler  5
Affiliations

Higher severity and risk of in-hospital mortality for COVID-19 patients with cancer during the year 2020 in Brazil: A countrywide analysis of secondary data

Guilherme Jorge Costa et al. Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and cancer are serious public health problems worldwide. However, little is known about the risk factors of in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients with and without cancer in Brazil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk factors of in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients with and without cancer and to compare mortality according to gender and topography during the year 2020 in Brazil.

Methods: This was a secondary data study of hospitalized adult patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 by real-time polymerase chain reaction testing in Brazil. The data were collected from the Influenza Epidemiological Surveillance Information System.

Results: This study analyzed data from 322,817 patients. The prevalence of cancer in patients with COVID-19 was 2.3%. COVID-19 patients with neurological diseases and cancer had the most lethal comorbidities in both sexes. COVID-19 patients with cancer were more likely to be older (median age, 67 vs 62 years; P < .001), to have a longer hospital stay (13.1 vs 11.5 days; P < .001), to be admitted to the intensive care unit (45.3% vs 39.6%; P < .001), to receive more invasive mechanical ventilation (27.1% vs 21.9%), and to have a higher risk of death (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.94; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.83-2.06; P < .001) than those without cancer. Patients with hematological neoplasia (aOR, 2.85; 95% CI, 2.41-3.38; P < .001) had a higher risk of mortality than those with solid tumors (aOR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.72-1.95; P < .001) in both sexes.

Conclusions: Brazilian COVID-19 patients with cancer have higher disease severity and a higher risk of mortality than those without cancer.

Keywords: Brazil; cancer; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); mortality; prevalence; risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors made no disclosures.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the SIVEP‐Gripe data used in this study. RT‐PCR indicates real‐time polymerase chain reaction; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SIVEP‐Gripe, Sistema de Informação de Vigilância Epidemiológica da Gripe.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percent distributions according to cancer patients versus noncancer patients: (A) overall in‐hospital mortality (P < .001), (B) admission to the ICU (P < .001), and (C) invasive mechanical ventilation (P < .001). ICU indicates intensive care unit.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percent distributions of the lethality of different comorbidities according to sex.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 according to the topography of cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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