A comprehensive meta-analysis shows that patients with cancer and COVID-19 have a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than their cancer-free peers.
And contrary to some individual studies, younger age was associated with worse outcomes from COVID-19, with the risk of mortality decreasing in patients with cancer and COVID-19 as age increased.
When considering cancer types and treatments, patients with lung or blood cancers were at an increased risk of dying from COVID-19, and chemotherapy was associated with the highest risk of death from COVID-19, while endocrine therapy was associated with the lowest risk.
The analysis, by Carlo Palmieri, MBBS, PhD, with University of Liverpool, England, and colleagues, was published online May 9 in JAMA Network Open.
Conflicting Age Data
The growing body of evidence continues to show that COVID-19 infection increases the risk of more severe disease and death in people with cancer. However, the impact of tumor types, treatments, age, and sex on this risk remains less clear.
To investigate, Palmieri and colleagues reviewed 81 studies from 28 countries involving 61,532 patients with cancer, published through mid-June 2021. Among 58,849 patients with available data, 52% were male and the median age ranged from 35 years to 74 years.
Nineteen studies compared 3926 patients with cancer and COVID-19 infection with 38,847 controls.
