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AACR Journals Feature New Data on COVID-19 Outcomes in Patients with Cancer

August 4, 2020

PHILADELPHIA – Cancer Discovery and Blood Cancer Discovery, journals of the American Association for Cancer Research, recently published two articles investigating the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients with cancer:
 

  • The study published in Cancer Discovery is titled “Clinical portrait of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in European cancer patients.” In this multi-center, observational study, an international team of researchers analyzed COVID-19 mortality rates among 890 patients with different types of cancer. They found that male patients who were 65 or older and had a higher number of comorbidities were at greater risk of death from COVID-19. Importantly, receipt of cancer therapy did not worsen COVID-19 severity or mortality. The full paper is available for download here.
     
  • The study published in Blood Cancer Discovery is titled “COVID-19 infections and outcomes in patients with multiple myeloma in New York City: a cohort study from five academic centers.” The authors identified 100 patients with multiple myeloma who contracted COVID-19, and report outcomes and risk factors for serious disease. Of the 75 patients hospitalized, 22 died, a mortality rate of 29 percent. The authors identify race/ethnicity as the strongest risk factor for adverse outcomes. This study includes the largest cohort of COVID-19 hospitalizations in patients with multiple myeloma to date. The full paper is available for download here.


These papers add to the growing body of research into the consequences of the global pandemic for cancer patients, much of which was discussed at the recent AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer. This three-day event featured the latest basic, clinical, and epidemiologic findings related to COVID-19 and cancer, and panel discussions on how this unprecedented situation has impacted biomedical research, cancer care, vaccine development, and drug repurposing. Highlights are available on the AACR’s blog. Reporters may access the archived meeting sessions by contacting Kathleen Venango at [email protected].

All AACR journal content related to COVID-19 is freely available in the COVID-19 & Cancer Resource Center.