Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with haematologic malignancies and COVID-19 suggest that prolonged SARS-CoV-2 carriage is an important issue

Abstract

Specificities of COVID-19 disease course in patients with haematologic malignancies are still poorly studied. So, we aimed to compare patients with haematologic malignancies to patients without malignancies, matched by sex and age and hospitalised for COVID-19 at the same time and in the same centre. Among 25 patients with haematologic malignancies, we found that mortality (40% versus 4%, p < 0.01), number of days with RT-PCR positivity (21.2 ± 15.9 days [range, 3-57] versus 7.4 ± 5.6 days [range, 1-24], p < 0.01), maximal viral load (mean minimal Ct, 17.2 ± 5.2 [range, 10-30] versus 26.5 ± 5.1 [range, 15-33], p < 0.0001) and the delay between symptom onset and clinical worsening (mean time duration between symptom onset and first day of maximum requirement in inspired oxygen fraction, 14.3 ± 10.7 days versus 9.6 ± 3.7 days, p = 0.0485) were higher than in other patients. COVID-19 course in patients with haematologic malignancies has a delayed onset and is more severe with a higher mortality, and patients may be considered as super-spreaders. Clinicians and intensivists need to be trained to understand the specificity of COVID-19 courses in patients with haematological malignancies.

Keywords: COVID-19; Haematologic malignancies; Mortality; SARS-CoV-2; Super-spreader.