SARS‐CoV‐2 infections in patients enrolled on the Children's Oncology Group standard‐risk B‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia trial, AALL1731
Caitlin W. Elgarten,
John A. Kairalla,
Joel C. Thompson,
Tamara P. Miller,
Cindy Wang,
Susan Conway,
Mignon L. Loh,
Elizabeth A. Raetz,
Sumit Gupta,
Rachel E. Rau,
Anne Angiolillo,
Karen R. Rabin,
Sarah Alexander
Affiliations
Caitlin W. Elgarten
Department of Pediatrics Division of Oncology Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
John A. Kairalla
Department of Biostatistics University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
Joel C. Thompson
Department of Pediatrics Division of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant Children's Mercy Hospital University of Missouri ‐ Kansas City Kansas City Missouri USA
Tamara P. Miller
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Children's Healthcare of Atlanta ‐ Egleston Atlanta Georgia USA
Cindy Wang
Department of Biostatistics University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
Susan Conway
Department of Biostatistics University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
Mignon L. Loh
Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research Seattle Children's Research Institute and Department of Pediatrics Seattle Children's Hospital University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
Elizabeth A. Raetz
Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone New York New York USA
Sumit Gupta
Division of Hematology/Oncology Hospital for Sick Children Toronto Ontario Canada
Rachel E. Rau
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Baylor College of Medicine Houston Texas USA
Anne Angiolillo
Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders Children's National Medical Center Washington District of Columbia USA
Karen R. Rabin
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Baylor College of Medicine Houston Texas USA
Sarah Alexander
Division of Hematology/Oncology Hospital for Sick Children Toronto Ontario Canada
Abstract Hematologic malignancy is a risk factor for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in adults; however, data specific to children with leukemia are limited. High‐quality infectious adverse event data from the ongoing Children's Oncology Group (COG) standard‐risk B acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (ALL/LLy) trial, AALL1731, were analyzed to provide a disease‐specific estimate of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection outcomes in pediatric ALL. Of 253 patients with reported infections, the majority (77.1%) were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic (CTCAE grade 1/2) and there was a single COVID‐19‐related death. These data suggest SARS‐CoV‐2 infection does not confer substantial morbidity among young patients with B‐lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B‐ALL/LLy).
