Thrombosis and Hemostasis Issues in Cancer Patients with COVID-19
Netanel A. Horowitz, Benjamin Brenner
Abstract
) is an infectious pandemic disorder caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), a single-stranded RNA -coronavirus. Virus particles that can be inhaled through the respiratory system and invade lung alveolar cells may cause a limited viral disease. However, in some patients, severe complications, including systemic inflammatory response syndrome, acute respiratory disease syndrome, multiple organ failure, and shock may develop. These presentations are particularly frequent among several risk groups, including older patients, those with hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular, pulmonary and renal diseases, autoimmunity disturbances, and cancer. ] A recent report evaluated 1,524 patients, admitted to the Department of Radiation and Medical Oncology of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. While the rate of COVID-19 was 0.79% among cancer patients, it was 0.37% in the general population of Wuhan during the same time period (odds ratio [OR]: 2.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.89-3.02). Patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) displayed higher incidence of COVID-19, especially those > 60 years of age (4.3 vs. 1.8% in those aged 60 years with NSCLC). In another study from China, cancer patients were found to have higher risk of severe events (i.e., death or admission to the intensive care unit [ICU] for invasive ventilation) (7/18 [39%] vs. 124/1,572 [8%] patients; p 0.0003). he COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry recently reported a large cohort study of 928 patients from the United States, Canada, and Spain. The primary endpoint