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. 2021 Dec 10;11(12):198.
doi: 10.1038/s41408-021-00588-z.

Impact of COVID-19 in patients with multiple myeloma based on a global data network

J Martinez-Lopez #  1 , G Hernandez-Ibarburu #  2 , R Alonso #  3 , J M Sanchez-Pina  3 , I Zamanillo  3 , N Lopez-Muñoz  3 , Rodrigo Iñiguez  3 , C Cuellar  3 , M Calbacho  3 , M L Paciello  3 , R Ayala  3 , N García-Barrio  4 , D Perez-Rey  2 , L Meloni  5 , J Cruz  4 , M Pedrera-Jiménez  4 , P Serrano-Balazote  4 , J de la Cruz  6
Affiliations

Impact of COVID-19 in patients with multiple myeloma based on a global data network

J Martinez-Lopez et al. Blood Cancer J. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a major cause of morbidity/mortality worldwide, overstressing health systems. Multiple myeloma (MM) patients show an increased risk for infections and they are expected to be particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here we have obtained a comprehensive picture of the impact of COVID-19 in MM patients on a local and a global scale using a federated data research network (TriNetX) that provided access to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) from Health Care Organizations (HCO) all over the world. Through propensity score matched analyses we found that the number of new diagnoses of MM was reduced in 2020 compared to 2019 (RR 0.86, 95%CI 0.76-0.96) and the survival of newly diagnosed MM cases decreased similarly (HR 0.61, 0.38-0.81). MM patients showed higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (RR 2.09, 1.58-2.76) and a higher excess mortality in 2020 (difference in excess mortality 9%, 4.4-13.2) than non-MM patients. By interrogating large EMR datasets from HCO in Europe and globally, we confirmed that MM patients have been more severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic than non-MM patients. This study highlights the necessity of extending preventive measures worlwide to protect vulnerable patients from SARS-CoV-2 infection by promoting social distancing and an intensive vaccination strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Flow chart of the study.
A Diagram of the cohorts used for the analysis of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) cases in 2019 and 2020. B Diagram of the cohorts used for the analysis of COVID-19 cases in MM and non-MM patients. C Diagram of the cohorts used for the COVID-19 analysis of mortality analysis (MM vs non-MM) between the first and the second half of 2020.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. New MM cases by year.
New cases of MM by data network, age group and quarters of 2019 (blue), 2020 (orange) and 2021 (gray).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. MM survival by year.
A KM plots comparing OS after the first year of MM diagnosis of patients diagnosed in 2019 (purple) and in 2020 (green), with H12O data. B KM plots comparing OS after the first year of MM diagnosis of patients diagnosed in 2019 (purple) and in 2020 (green), with EMEA network.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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