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. 2022 May 5;3(3):181-193.
doi: 10.1158/2643-3230.BCD-22-0013.

Patients Recently Treated for B-lymphoid Malignancies Show Increased Risk of Severe COVID-19

Samuel M Rubinstein #  1 , Divaya Bhutani #  2 , Ryan C Lynch #  3 , Chih-Yuan Hsu  4 , Yu Shyr  4   5 , Shailesh Advani  6 , Ruben A Mesa  7 , Sanjay Mishra  8 , Daniel P Mundt  9 , Dimpy P Shah  7 , R Alejandro Sica  10 , Keith E Stockerl-Goldstein  11 , Catherine Stratton  12 , Matthias Weiss  13 , Alicia Beeghly-Fadiel  5 , Melissa Accordino  2 , Sarit E Assouline  14 , Joy Awosika  15 , Ziad Bakouny  16 , Babar Bashir  17 , Stephanie Berg  18 , Mehmet Asim Bilen  19 , Cecilia A Castellano  19 , Jacob C Cogan  2 , Devendra Kc  20 , Christopher R Friese  21 , Shilpa Gupta  22 , Daniel Hausrath  8 , Clara Hwang  23 , Nathalie A Johnson  14 , Monika Joshi  24 , Anup Kasi  25 , Elizabeth J Klein  26 , Vadim S Koshkin  27 , Nicole M Kuderer  28 , Daniel H Kwon  27 , Chris Labaki  16 , Tahir Latif  15 , Eric Lau  29 , Xuanyi Li  8 , Gary H Lyman  30 , Rana R McKay  31 , Gayathri Nagaraj  29 , Amanda Nizam  22 , Taylor K Nonato  31 , Adam J Olszewski  26 , Hyma V Polimera  24 , Andrew J Portuguese  3 , Matthew M Puc  32 , Pedram Razavi  31 , Rachel Rosovski  33 , Andrew Schmidt  16 , Sumit A Shah  34 , Aditi Shastri  10 , Christopher Su  21 , Pallawi Torka  35 , Trisha M Wise-Draper  15 , Leyre Zubiri  32 , Jeremy L Warner #  5   36 , Michael A Thompson #  9 ; COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium
Affiliations

Patients Recently Treated for B-lymphoid Malignancies Show Increased Risk of Severe COVID-19

Samuel M Rubinstein et al. Blood Cancer Discov. .

Abstract

Patients with B-lymphoid malignancies have been consistently identified as a population at high risk of severe COVID-19. Whether this is exclusively due to cancer-related deficits in humoral and cellular immunity, or whether risk of severe COVID-19 is increased by anticancer therapy, is uncertain. Using data derived from the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19), we show that patients treated for B-lymphoid malignancies have an increased risk of severe COVID-19 compared with control populations of patients with non-B-lymphoid malignancies. Among patients with B-lymphoid malignancies, those who received anticancer therapy within 12 months of COVID-19 diagnosis experienced increased COVID-19 severity compared with patients with non-recently treated B-lymphoid malignancies, after adjustment for cancer status and several other prognostic factors. Our findings suggest that patients recently treated for a B-lymphoid malignancy are at uniquely high risk for severe COVID-19.

Significance: Our study suggests that recent therapy for a B-lymphoid malignancy is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 severity. These findings provide rationale to develop mitigation strategies targeted at the uniquely high-risk population of patients with recently treated B-lymphoid malignancies. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 171.

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Figures

Figure 1. Factors associated with COVID-19 severity. Forest plot visualization of the independent association of the covariates in the primary analysis with COVID-19 severity. Associations are represented as the log of the odds ratio of COVID-19 severity. Interaction terms are indicated with an asterisk.
Figure 1.
Factors associated with COVID-19 severity. Forest plot visualization of the independent association of the covariates in the primary analysis with COVID-19 severity. Associations are represented as the log of the odds ratio of COVID-19 severity. Interaction terms are indicated with an asterisk.
Figure 2. Descriptive outcomes for patients receiving various regimens. Barplot demonstrating rates of the ordinal outcome for patients recently treated for B-lymphoid malignancies stratified by the type of regimen received. No statistical comparisons between these groups were undertaken due to small numbers of patients in some of these categories, and these data are presented for the purposes of description only. More data on regimens received by the patients in this study is presented in the supplement.
Figure 2.
Descriptive outcomes for patients receiving various regimens. Bar plot demonstrating rates of the ordinal outcome for patients recently treated for B-lymphoid malignancies stratified by the type of regimen received. No statistical comparisons between these groups were undertaken due to small numbers of patients in some of these categories, and these data are presented for the purposes of description only. More data on regimens received by the patients in this study are presented in the supplement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Blood Cancer Discov. 3:171.
  • Blood Cancer Discov. 3:171.

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