1677MO - COVID-19 mortality in hospitalized cancer patients is not significantly affected by chemotherapy or other anti-cancer treatments

Background

Individuals with cancer, particularly those who are receiving systemic anti-cancer treatments, have been postulated to be at increased risk of mortality from SARS-CoV-2 related coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This conjecture has considerable impact on the treatment of cancer patients and large, multi-centre data to support this assumption is lacking due to the contingencies of the pandemic.

Methods

The cancer community of the United Kingdom (UK) has launched the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP). The UKCCMP is the first COVID-19 clinical registry that enables near real-time reports to frontline doctors about the effect of COVID-19 on cancer patients.

Results

An analysis of the first 800 cancer patients with symptomatic COVID-19 disease entered into the UKCCMP registry has been performed. Approximately half of these patients have a mild COVID-19 disease course (52%). Mortality was observed in 226 patients (28%) and risk of death was significantly associated with advancing patient age, sex (M>F) and the presence of other co-morbidities. Approximately one third had received cytotoxic chemotherapy within 4 weeks prior to testing positive for COVID-19. After adjusting for age, sex and comorbidities, recent receipt of chemotherapy had no significant effect on mortality from COVID-19 disease, when compared to cancer patients who had not received recent chemotherapy. No significant effect on mortality was also observed for patients with recent immunotherapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy or radiotherapy use.

Conclusions

Mortality from COVID-19 in cancer patients appears to be principally driven by age, sex and co-morbidities. We are not able to identify evidence that cancer patients on cytotoxic chemotherapy or other anti-cancer treatment are at significantly increased risk of mortality from COVID-19 disease compared to those not on active treatment.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

Gary Middleton.

Funding

University of Birmingham.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.