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
. 2021 Oct;21(10):e801-e809.
doi: 10.1016/j.clml.2021.06.024. Epub 2021 Jul 18.

Frequency, Clinical Characteristics and Outcome of Adults With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and COVID 19 Infection in the First vs. Second Pandemic Wave in Spain

Josep-Maria Ribera  1 , Mireia Morgades  2 , Rosa Coll  3 , Pere Barba  4 , Jose-Luis López-Lorenzo  5 , Pau Montesinos  6 , María-Angeles Foncillas  7 , Mónica Cabrero  8 , Ignacio Gómez-Centurión  9 , María-Dolores Morales  10 , María-Rosario Varela  11 , Pilar Herrera  12 , Irene García-Cadenas  13 , María Calbacho  14 , Anna Torrent  2 , Clara Maluquer  15 , Marisa Calabuig  16 , Antoni Garcia-Guiñon  17 , Guiomar Bautista  18 , Laura Llorente  19 , Cristina Gil  20 , María-Teresa Artola  21 , José González-Campos  22 , Ainhoa Fernández-Moreno  23 , Abelardo Bárez  24 , Teresa Giménez-Pérez  25 , Juan Bergua  26 , María-José Sánchez-Sánchez  27 , María-Carmen Mateos  27 , José-Luis Piñana  26
Affiliations

Frequency, Clinical Characteristics and Outcome of Adults With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and COVID 19 Infection in the First vs. Second Pandemic Wave in Spain

Josep-Maria Ribera et al. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Background and objective: SARS-CoV-2 infection has bimodal distribution in Europe with a first wave in March to June 2020 and a second in September 2020 to February 2021. We compared the frequency, clinical characteristics and outcomes of adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and infection in the first vs. second pandemic waves in Spain.

Patients and methods: In this prospective study the characteristics of ALL and COVID-19 infection, comorbidities, treatment and outcome in the two periods were compared. The study ended when vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 was implemented in Spain.

Results: Twenty eight patients were collected in the first wave and 24 in the second. The median age was 46.5 years (range 20-83). Patients from the first wave had a trend to more severe ALL (higher frequency of patients under induction or submitted to transplantation or under immunosuppressive therapy). No significant differences were observed in need for oxygen support, intensive care unit (ICU) requirement, days in ICU and time to COVID-19 infection recovery. Seventeen patients (33%) died, with death attributed to COVID infection in 15 (29%), without significant differences in the 100 day overall survival (OS) probabilities in the two waves (68% ± 17% vs. 56% ± 30%). The only prognostic factor for OS identified by was the presence of comorbidities at COVID-19 infection (HR: 5.358 [95% CI: 1.875- 15.313]).

Conclusion: The frequency and mortality of COVID-19 infection were high in adults with ALL, without changes over time, providing evidence in favor of vaccination priority for these patients.

Keywords: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Adults; Covid-19 infection; Outcome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Survival probability of ALL patients according to the wave of COVID-19 infection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Survival probability of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and COVID-19 infection according to the presence of comorbidities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lee L.Y.W., Cazier J.B., Starkey T., et al. COVID-19 prevalence and mortality in patients with cancer and the effect of primary tumor subtype and patient demographics: a prospective cohort study. Lancet Oncol. 2020;21:1309–1316. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kuderer N.M., Choueiri T.K., Shah D.P., et al. Clinical impact of COVID-19 on patients with cancer (CCC19): a cohort study. Lancet. 2020;395:1907–1918. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Assaad S., Avrillon V., Fournier M.L., et al. High mortality rate in cancer patients with symptoms of COVID-19 with or without detectable SARS-COV-2 on RT-PCR. Eur J Cancer. 2020;135:251–259. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vijenthira A., Gong I.Y., Fox T.A., et al. Outcomes of patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 3377 patients. Blood. 2020;136:2881–2892. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wood W.A., Neuberg D.S., Thompson J.C., et al. Outcomes of patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19: a report from the ASH Research Collaborative Data Hub. Blood Adv. 2020;4:5966–5975. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms