Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of General Surgery, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Department of Hematology and Oncology, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Cancer Treat Res Commun. 2021;27:100346. doi: 10.1016/j.ctarc.2021.100346. Epub 2021 Feb 26.
Several factors raise concern for increased risk of COVID-19 in cancer patients. While there is strong support for testing symptomatic patients. The benefit of routine testing of asymptomatic patients remains contentious. We aim to evaluate the prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection in cancer patients.
Between June 1 and September 3, 2020, we obtained nasopharyngeal swab from asymptomatic cancer patients who were visiting a single tertiary-care cancer center, and tested the specimen for the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. We performed a descriptive statistic of data RESULTS: We tested a total of 80 patients, of which 3 (3.75%) were found positive for COVID-19. A significant proportion of the tested patients were on active immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory treatment, cytotoxic chemotherapy (n = 34), and immunotherapy (n = 16). However, all three COVID-19 positive patients were only actively on hormonal therapy. All three patients observed a minimum of 2 weeks home quarantine. None of the patients developed symptoms upon follow up and no changes were required to their treatment plan.
Despite published evidence that cancer patients may be at increased risk of severe COVID -19 infection, our data suggest that some infected cancer patients are asymptomatic. The overall prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection in this population of cancer patients was similar to that in the general population. Therefore, since asymptomatic infections are not uncommon in patients with cancer, we recommend universal COVID-19 testing to help guide treatment decisions and prevent the spread of the disease.
有几个因素使癌症患者感染 COVID-19 的风险增加。虽然强烈支持对有症状的患者进行检测，但对无症状患者进行常规检测的益处仍存在争议。我们旨在评估癌症患者无症状 COVID-19 感染的患病率。
在 2020 年 6 月 1 日至 9 月 3 日期间，我们从访问单一三级癌症中心的无症状癌症患者中获得鼻咽拭子，并对标本进行 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 存在或不存在的检测。我们对数据进行了描述性统计。
我们共检测了 80 例患者，其中 3 例（3.75%）COVID-19 检测呈阳性。接受检测的患者中有相当一部分正在接受积极的免疫抑制或免疫调节治疗、细胞毒性化疗（n=34）和免疫治疗（n=16）。然而，所有 3 例 COVID-19 阳性患者仅接受激素治疗。所有 3 例患者均在家中隔离至少 2 周。随访时没有患者出现症状，也不需要改变其治疗计划。
尽管有证据表明癌症患者可能有更高的 COVID-19 感染严重风险，但我们的数据表明，一些感染的癌症患者无症状。该癌症患者人群中无症状 COVID-19 感染的总体患病率与普通人群相似。因此，由于癌症患者无症状感染并不少见，我们建议进行普遍的 COVID-19 检测，以帮助指导治疗决策并防止疾病传播。
