Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology (Nov 2021)

COVID-19 in breast cancer patients: a subanalysis of the OnCovid registry

  • Laia Garrigós,
  • Cristina Saura,
  • Clara Martinez-Vila,
  • Alberto Zambelli,
  • Mark Bower,
  • Barbara Pistilli,
  • Matteo Lambertini,
  • Diego Ottaviani,
  • Nikolaos Diamantis,
  • Ailsa Lumsden,
  • Sonia Pernas,
  • Daniele Generali,
  • Elia Seguí,
  • Gemma Viñas,
  • Eudald Felip,
  • Ana Sanchez,
  • Gianpiero Rizzo,
  • Armando Santoro,
  • Alessio Cortellini,
  • Ylenia Perone,
  • John Chester,
  • Maria Iglesias,
  • Marta Betti,
  • Bruno Vincenzi,
  • Michela Libertini,
  • Francesca Mazzoni,
  • Federica Zoratto,
  • Rossana Berardi,
  • Annalisa Guida,
  • Rachel Wuerstlein,
  • Angela Loizidou,
  • Rachel Sharkey,
  • Juan Aguilar Company,
  • Marta Matas,
  • Chiara Saggia,
  • Lorenzo Chiudinelli,
  • Emeline Colomba-Blameble,
  • Myria Galazi,
  • Uma Mukherjee,
  • Mieke Van Hemelrijck,
  • Mar Marin,
  • Carla Strina,
  • Aleix Prat,
  • Helena Pla,
  • Eva Maria Ciruelos,
  • Alexia Bertuzzi,
  • Lucia del Mastro,
  • Giampiero Porzio,
  • Thomas Newsom-Davis,
  • Isabel Ruiz,
  • Maria Belen Delany,
  • Marco Krengli,
  • Vittoria Fotia,
  • Alessandro Viansone,
  • Neha Chopra,
  • Margarita Romeo,
  • Ramon Salazar,
  • Ignacio Perez,
  • Francesca d’Avanzo,
  • Michela Franchi,
  • Manuela Milani,
  • Fanny Pommeret,
  • Marco Tucci,
  • Paolo Pedrazzoli,
  • Nadia Harbeck,
  • Daniela Ferrante,
  • David J. Pinato,
  • Alessandra Gennari

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/17588359211053416
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Background: Cancer patients are at higher risk of COVID-19 complications and mortality than the rest of the population. Breast cancer patients seem to have better prognosis when infected by SARS-CoV-2 than other cancer patients. Methods: We report a subanalysis of the OnCovid study providing more detailed information in the breast cancer population. Results: We included 495 breast cancer patients with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Mean age was 62.6 years; 31.5% presented more than one comorbidity. The most frequent breast cancer subtype was luminal-like ( n = 245, 49.5%) and 177 (35.8%) had metastatic disease. A total of 332 (67.1%) patients were receiving active treatment, with radical intent in 232 (47.6%) of them. Hospitalization rate was 58.2% and all-cause mortality rate was 20.3%. One hundred twenty-nine (26.1%) patients developed one COVID-19 complication, being acute respiratory failure the most common ( n = 74, 15.0%). In the multivariable analysis, age older than 70 years, presence of COVID-19 complications, and metastatic disease were factors correlated with worse outcomes, while ongoing anticancer therapy at time of COVID-19 diagnosis appeared to be a protective factor. No particular oncological treatment was related to higher risk of complications. In the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection, 73 (18.3%) patients had some kind of modification on their oncologic treatment. At the first oncological reassessment (median time: 46.9 days ± 36.7), 255 (51.6%) patients reported to be fully recovered from the infection. There were 39 patients (7.9%) with long-term SARS-CoV-2-related complications. Conclusion: In the context of COVID-19, our data confirm that breast cancer patients appear to have lower complications and mortality rate than expected in other cancer populations. Most breast cancer patients can be safely treated for their neoplasm during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Oncological treatment has no impact on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 complications, and, especially in the curative setting, the treatment should be modified as little as possible.