Impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on patients with hematological malignancies: a retrospective study

This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of patients with hematological malignancies (HM) and SARS-CoV-2 infection and analyze the risk factors of their severity and mortality.

A retrospective study including inpatients diagnosed HM and SARS-CoV-2 infection between December 2022 and February 2023 were conducted. Demographic information, medical history, comorbidities, diagnosis, treatment related information and outcomes were extracted from electronic medical database. The primary outcome of this study were the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and case-fatality rate. The clinical characteristic and outcomes of the patients were summarized and analyzed.

A total of 74 patients with HM and SARS-CoV-2 infection were included. Out of the total cases, 85.1% (63) had a mild /moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 14.9% (11) were severe/ critical infection cases. A total of 8 deaths occurred in all cases for a case-fatality rate of 10.8%. Multivariate analysis identified patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (P = 0.043, OR:5.274, 95%CI:1.053-26.407), primary hematological disease in active state (P = 0.005, OR:13.905, 95%CI:2.180-88.704) were independent risk factors for the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and patients with AML had 11.145-fold higher risk of non-survival (P = 0.020, OR:11.145, 95%CI:1.460-85.103) in comparison to the patients with other types of HM. There were no significant differences in the severity and case-fatality rate (P > 0.05) between the patients receiving chemotherapy drugs administration waiting <14 days and ≥14 days after negative SARS-CoV-2 testing.

The primary hematological disease in active state may be the main risk factor for negative outcome of the patents. Waiting 14 days for chemotherapy initiation after negative SARS-CoV-2 testing is unnecessary.