Clinical Features and Disease Course of Cancer Patients Infected with Sars-Cov-2 During Anticancer Treatments

Cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 during their active anticancer treatment represent a highly vulnerable population. We aimed this investigation to show clinical features and outcomes of the patients who had mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms or were asymptomatic at the admission to the COVID Center. The retrospective study included 25 cancer patients confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 within seven days of their last anticancer treatment. Clinical data were collected from medical records and processed by methods of descriptive and inferential statistics. Patients' mean age was 68.1±10.4 years. More than 2/3 of the patients were with ECOG PS 0 and 1, and about 4/5 of patients were in III or IV cancer stage. The most frequently applied types of therapy were radiotherapy and combined radio/chemotherapy. Eleven (44.0%) patients had bilateral while 4 (16%) had unilateral pneumonia. The most frequent symptoms were fever (72%), fatigue (72%), dyspnea (32%), and cough (32%). 1/5 of the patients needed oxygen support. Mean neutrophil (2.6±1.2), lymphocyte (0.9±0.6) and platelets (200.1±88.1) number significantly increased from admission to discharge (p=0.004, p=0.005, p<0.001). Median CRP significantly decreased from 40.4 (6.2-96.2) at admission to 11.35 (3.75-27.65) at discharge (p=0.008). Twenty-four patients were cured, and one patient died. Naso-pharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 clearance time was 19.4±6.9 days; the minimum was seven, and the maximum was 39 days. Cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 during active anticancer treatment can successfully overcome COVID-19 without developing further respiratory or other complications during hospitalization. An increase in lymphocyte and neutrophil counts, with a decrease in CRP, may be markers of a favorable prognosis.