Comparison of mortality in patients on chemotherapy or immunotherapy during and before COVID-19 pandemic. Multicenter matched cohort study in Argentina.

Abstract

Objectives.: Motivation for the study. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the risk of death in cancer patients on chemotherapy and immunotherapy is controversial. Published studies mainly compared patients on anti-cancer therapy to those off treatment or COVID-19 positive cancer patients to COVID-19 negative ones. Few studies were conducted in developing countries. Main findings. Mortality didn't increase in unvaccinated outpatients on active intravenous oncology treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications. This is the first propensity score-matched cohort study evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population of unvaccinated oncology patients receiving intravenous anticancer therapy. . To compare all-cause mortality of unvaccinated oncology patients who received chemotherapy or immunotherapy during the pandemic with those treated before the pandemic.

Materials and methods.: We conducted a cohort study in four tertiary hospitals in Argentina. Outpatients with a solid neoplasm of any stage under-going cytotoxic or intravenous immunotherapy were eligible. The pandemic cohort was enrolled during the initial phase of the outbreak and compared with a pre-pandemic cohort using propensity score matching (PSM). Subjects were matched for age, sex, health insurance, risk factors for severe COVID-19 complications, performance status, cancer type and treatment, line of treatment, and body mass index. All-cause mortality was estimated for both cohorts after 6 months of follow-up.

Results.: A total of 169 patients were recruited between April and August 2020 for the pandemic cohort and 377 for the pre-pandemic cohort in the same months of 2019; 168 patients were matched. After PSM, all-cause mortality was 17.9% in the pandemic cohort and 18.5% in the pre-pandemic cohort; the Relative Risk was 0.97 (95 % confidence interval: 0.61-1.52; p=0.888). In the pandemic cohort, 30/168 patients died, but none from COVID-19.

Conclusions.: Our findings show that the mortality rate of unvaccinated ambulatory patients on active intravenous oncology treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic did not increase.