The goal of the current study is to evaluate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of cancer patients with COVID-19 infections. Additionally, the authors assessed the effect of hepatitis B immunization status on susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and mortality risk.

The study included the records of 1,515 patients who presented to the Medical Oncology clinic between March 2020 and December 2020. They also contrasted the demographic and clinical characteristics and laboratory findings of cancer patients with (case group) and without (control group) COVID-19 infection.

The results declared that among the 1,515 patients, 153 (10.1%) were diagnosed with COVID-19, and the median age of cancer patients with COVID-19 infection was 53.9 (range; 18–82) years. The most frequent types of cancer were breast cancer (26.2%), gastrointestinal system cancers (22.3%), genitourinary-system cancers (16.5%) and lung cancer (15.5%). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the presence of metastatic disease [hazard ratio (HR): 0.09, 95% CI (0.01–0.83)] and receipt of palliative chemotherapy in the cancer patients with COVID-19 infections [HR: 0.1, 95% CI (0.01–0.69] were recognized as prognostic factors whereas univariate analysis did not denote palliative treatment as a prognostic factor. The comparison of the case group and control groups in terms of hepatitis B immunization status showed no statistically significant difference between them. Hepatitis B immunization status were not found to be correlated to with COVID-19-related mortality risk.

The study concluded that hepatitis B immunization status is not related to the risk of COVID-19 transmission and mortality. The investigators also established the presence of metastatic disease and palliative chemotherapy as negative and positive prognostic factors, respectively.

Source: Medical Research Journal.2021.6 (2). Available at: https://journals.viamedica.pl/medical_research_journal/article/view/75781