Comment on “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in patients with hematological malignancies in the Omicron era: respiratory failure, need for mechanical ventilation and mortality in seronegative and seropositive patients”

Dear Editor,

We would like to share ideas on the publication “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in patients with hematological malignancies in the Omicron era: respiratory failure, need for mechanical ventilation and mortality in seronegative and seropositive patients [1].” Researchers compared patients based on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) serology in order to examine the outcomes of hematologic malignancy (HM) patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection from January 2022 to March 2023 in this retrospective single-center analysis. Of the 112 patients in the research, 39% had a negative serology for SARS-CoV-2. Comparing seronegative individuals to seropositive patients, the findings showed that the former were older, had a higher likelihood of a lymphoid neoplasm, had anti-CD20 medication, and had a more severe illness. Additionally, a Kaplan–Meier study revealed that patients who tested negative for COVID-19 were more likely to experience respiratory failure, require mechanical ventilation, and die from the virus.

This study's retrospective approach, which can create biases and restrictions in data collection and analysis, is one of its drawbacks. Furthermore, the research was carried out at a single facility, which can restrict how broadly the results can be applied to other demographics. Additionally, it is possible that the sample size of 112 patients was insufficient to make firm conclusions, particularly when comparing the outcomes of HM patients who were seronegative and those who were seropositive. Furthermore, the study did not look into any confounding factors that might have affected the patients' results.

Conducting a bigger multicenter prospective study to validate the results of this study and improve the generalizability of the results could be one of the next directions for this area of research. Furthermore, analyzing the effects of various treatment modalities on outcomes in SARS-CoV-2-infected HM patients may offer insightful information for clinical practice. Furthermore, investigating the immune response and its impact on illness outcomes and progression in seronegative HM patients may aid in deciphering the underlying processes of COVID-19 in this particular cohort. Last but not least, examining the long-term consequences of COVID-19 for HM patients, such as the likelihood of relapse and late sequelae, may yield crucial data for patient management and post-treatment care.

Ideas, writing, analyzing, and approval (50%): Hinpetch Daungsupawong. Ideas, supervision, and approval (50%): Viroj Wiwanitkit.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

The authors have confirmed that ethical approval statement is not needed for this submission.

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The authors have confirmed that clinical trial registration is not needed for this submission.