A study conducted by the Imperial College London researchers, involving 19 different hospitals across Europe, has found that continuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment in cancer patients with Covid-19 is not a risk to their survival.
It also recommends further research into the drug hydroxychloroquine, which appeared to benefit some patients. The findings, from 890 infected cancer patients in the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany, could help identify who is most at risk from coronavirus. Breast cancer patients had half the death rate of other patients.
Key Clinical Insights
The study highlights a number of key clinical insights, including:
- The average mortality rate among cancer patients with SARS-CoV-2 was 33.6%
- Patients who were male, older aged and had pre-existing conditions were more likely to have worse outcomes from COVID-19
- Continued chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment had little impact on the severity of COVID-19, or survival rates
- The use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine appeared to have a beneficial effect in patients
- The UK had the highest mortality rates for cancer patients with COVID-19, as well as the highest incidence of hospital-based transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
According to the authors, the study provides evidence for using demographic factors to identify those cancer patients most at risk from COVID-19, so they can be further shielded. They add that there is also need for further research into emerging COVID-19 treatments in infected cancer patients, such as hydroxychloroquine.
Dr David Pinato, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer at Imperial College London and chief investigator of the study, said: “Since the early stages of the pandemic, cancer patients were identified as a high risk vulnerable group. In the UK, this has had an impact on access to cancer treatments. Clinicians had to make the difficult decisions to defer, modify or sometimes even withdraw active anti-cancer care due to concerns over safe delivery of treatment during the pandemic. Most of these recommendations have been guided so far by precautionary principle rather than solid evidence”.
“Our findings show the UK has among the highest mortality rates for cancer patients with COVID-19, as well as rates of hospital-based transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and suggests we should keep adapting our clinical services to minimise in-hospital transmission.”
“Our research also suggests the use of anti-cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy does not seem to increase mortality risk from COVID-19. This means that in many cases cancer treatment may be safe to use during the pandemic, depending on a patient’s individual circumstances and risk factors.”