Interplay of Immunosuppression and Immunotherapy Among Patients With Cancer and COVID-19
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
11-3-2022
Journal
JAMA oncology
DOI
10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.5357
Abstract
IMPORTANCE: Cytokine storm due to COVID-19 can cause high morbidity and mortality and may be more common in patients with cancer treated with immunotherapy (IO) due to immune system activation. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association of baseline immunosuppression and/or IO-based therapies with COVID-19 severity and cytokine storm in patients with cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This registry-based retrospective cohort study included 12 046 patients reported to the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry from March 2020 to May 2022. The CCC19 registry is a centralized international multi-institutional registry of patients with COVID-19 with a current or past diagnosis of cancer. Records analyzed included patients with active or previous cancer who had a laboratory-confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction and/or serologic findings. EXPOSURES: Immunosuppression due to therapy; systemic anticancer therapy (IO or non-IO). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was a 5-level ordinal scale of COVID-19 severity: no complications; hospitalized without requiring oxygen; hospitalized and required oxygen; intensive care unit admission and/or mechanical ventilation; death. The secondary outcome was the occurrence of cytokine storm. RESULTS: The median age of the entire cohort was 65 years (interquartile range [IQR], 54-74) years and 6359 patients were female (52.8%) and 6598 (54.8%) were non-Hispanic White. A total of 599 (5.0%) patients received IO, whereas 4327 (35.9%) received non-IO systemic anticancer therapies, and 7120 (59.1%) did not receive any antineoplastic regimen within 3 months prior to COVID-19 diagnosis. Although no difference in COVID-19 severity and cytokine storm was found in the IO group compared with the untreated group in the total cohort (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.80; 95% CI, 0.56-1.13, and aOR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.41-1.93, respectively), patients with baseline immunosuppression treated with IO (vs untreated) had worse COVID-19 severity and cytokine storm (aOR, 3.33; 95% CI, 1.38-8.01, and aOR, 4.41; 95% CI, 1.71-11.38, respectively). Patients with immunosuppression receiving non-IO therapies (vs untreated) also had worse COVID-19 severity (aOR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.36-2.35) and cytokine storm (aOR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.42-3.79). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This cohort study found that in patients with cancer and COVID-19, administration of systemic anticancer therapies, especially IO, in the context of baseline immunosuppression was associated with severe clinical outcomes and the development of cytokine storm. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04354701.
APA Citation
Bakouny, Ziad; Labaki, Chris; Grover, Punita; Awosika, Joy; Gulati, Shuchi; Hsu, Chih-Yuan; Alimohamed, Saif I.; Bashir, Babar; Berg, Stephanie; Bilen, Mehmet A.; Bowles, Daniel; Castellano, Cecilia; Desai, Aakash; Elkrief, Arielle; Eton, Omar E.; Fecher, Leslie A.; Flora, Daniel; Galsky, Matthew D.; Gatti-Mays, Margaret E.; Gesenhues, Alicia; Glover, Michael J.; Gopalakrishnan, Dharmesh; Gupta, Shilpa; Halfdanarson, Thorvardur R.; Hayes-Lattin, Brandon; Hendawi, Mohamed; Hsu, Emily; Hwang, Clara; Jandarov, Roman; Jani, Chinmay; Johnson, Douglas B.; and Joshi, Monika, "Interplay of Immunosuppression and Immunotherapy Among Patients With Cancer and COVID-19" (2022). GW Authored Works. Paper 1978.
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/gwhpubs/1978
Department
Radiology