Clinical characteristics, outcomes, and risk factors for mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and cancer history: a propensity score-matched study
Abstract Background: COVID-19 has caused great concern for patients with underlying medical conditions. We aimed to determine the prognosis of patients with current or previous cancer with either a PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection or a probable diagnosis according to chest CT scan.Methods: We conducted a case control study in a referral hospital on confirmed COVID-19 adult patients with and without a history of cancer from February25th to April21st, 2020. Patients were matched according to age, gender, and underlying diseases. Demographic features, clinical and Para clinical data have been extracted from medical records. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate odd ratios and 95% confidence intervals of each factor of interest with outcomes. Results: Fifty-three confirmed COVID-19 patients with history of cancer were recruited and compared with 106 non-cancerous COVID-19 patients. Male to female ratio was 1.33 and 45% were older than 65. Dyspnea was significantly associated with an increased rate of mortality in the cancer subgroup (p=0.013). Twenty-six patients (49%) survived among the cancer group while 89 patients (84%) survived in control (p=0.000). Patients with hematologic cancer had 63% mortality while those with solid tumors had 37%. Multivariate analysis showed that cancer, impaired consciousness, tachypnea, tachycardia, leukocytosis and thrombocytopenia were associated with an increased risk of death.Conclusion: Cancer increased mortality rate and hospital stay of COVID-19 patients and remained significant after adjustment of confounders. Compared to solid tumors, hematologic malignancies have been associated with worse consequences and higher mortality. Clinical and Para clinical indicators were not appropriate to predict death.