Clinical presentation and course of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 in patients with various types of cancer: A retrospective case–control analysis of an experienced cancer center in Turkey

Objective: Cancers have been reported to worsen the clinical course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. We aimed to demonstrate the real-life data on health outcomes in COVID-19-infected cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We analyzed the data of 43 COVID-19-infected cancer patients in our COVID-19 clinics between March 25, 2020, and May 9, 2020, retrospectively. Results: We determined that 1051 patients were followed up with COVID-19 infection and 43 (4%) of them were cancer patients. The mean age of the patients was 64.3 ± 12.3 years. Lung cancer is the most common cancer type among the patients (23.2%). Dyspnea (51.2%) was the most common symptom in the first admission. Typical ground-glass consolidation or patchy appearance with peribronchial thickening resembling bronchopneumonia on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was present in 29 (67.4%) patients. COVID-19 was diagnosed in 14 (32.5%) patients based on reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis of nose-throat swab samples without any sign of lung involvement on HRCT. Total mortality of the COVID-19 infection was 46.5% (n = 20). Presence of heart disease (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29–9.4), previous surgeries to the respiratory system (HR: 6.95; 95% CI: 1.29–27.7), and presence of dyspnea at admission (HR: 4; 95% CI: 1.31–12.3) were statistically significantly associated with death (P = 0.01, 0.02, and 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: Our practices supported that cancer patients were more affected by COVID-19 disease than the normal population. However, our findings can not be generalized due to being retrospective and single centered study, Also, we did not compare the findings with noncancer patients with COVID19 disease.