Mortality in Patients with Cancer and Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Systematic Review and Pooled Analysis of 52 Studies

Overview

Journal Eur J Cancer

Specialty Oncology

Date 2020 Sep 24

PMID 32971510

Citations 200

Authors

Kamal S Saini

Marco Tagliamento

Matteo Lambertini

Richard McNally

Marco Romano

Manuela Leone

Giuseppe Curigliano

Evandro de Azambuja

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who have underlying malignancy have a higher mortality rate compared with those without cancer, although the magnitude of such excess risk is not clearly defined. We performed a systematic review and pooled analysis to provide precise estimates of the mortality rate among patients with both cancer and COVID-19.

Methods: A systematic literature search involving peer-reviewed publications, preprints and conference proceedings up to July 16, 2020, was performed. The primary end-point was the case fatality rate (CFR), defined as the rate of death among patients with cancer and COVID-19. The CFR was assessed with a random effects model, which was used to derive a pooled CFR and its 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: Fifty-two studies, involving a total of 18,650 patients with both COVID-19 and cancer, were selected for the pooled analysis. A total of 4243 deaths were recorded in this population. The probability of death was 25.6% (95% CI: 22.0%-29.5%; I = 48.9%) in this patient population.

Conclusions: Patients with cancer who develop COVID-19 have high probability of mortality. Appropriate and aggressive preventive measures must be taken to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in patients with cancer and to optimally manage those who do contract the infection.

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