COVID-19 in persons with chronic myeloid leukaemia

• Published in: Leukemia Vol. 34; no. 7; pp. 1799 - 1804
• Main Authors: Li, Weiming, Wang, Danyu, Guo, Jingming, Yuan, Guolin, Yang, Zhuangzhi, Gale, Robert Peter, You, Yong, Chen, Zhichao, Chen, Shiming, Wan, Chucheng, Zhu, Xiaojian, Chang, Wei, Sheng, Lingshuang, Cheng, Hui, Zhang, Youshan, Li, Qing, Qin, Jun, Meng, Li, Jiang, Qian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.07.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/699/1541/1990/283/1896; 692/699/255; Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Betacoronavirus - pathogenicity; Blood cancer; Cancer Research; Child; China; China - epidemiology; Chronic myeloid leukemia; Confidence intervals; Coronavirus Infections - complications; Coronavirus Infections - diagnostic imaging; Coronavirus Infections - drug therapy; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Critical Care Medicine; Cytogenetics; Dasatinib; Development and progression; Disease Progression; Enzyme inhibitors; Epidemics; Exposure; Female; Health aspects; Health care industry; Hematology; Humans; Imatinib; Imatinib Mesylate - therapeutic use; Inhibitor drugs; Intensive; Internal Medicine; Kinases; Leukemia; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - complications; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - diagnostic imaging; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - drug therapy; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - epidemiology; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Morbidity; Nilotinib; Oncology; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - complications; Pneumonia, Viral - diagnostic imaging; Pneumonia, Viral - drug therapy; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Prevalence; Protein Kinase Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Protein-tyrosine kinase; Risk analysis; Risk Factors; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Surveys and Questionnaires; Targeted cancer therapy; Tyrosine; Viral diseases; China
• ISSN: 0887-6924; 1476-5551; 1476-5551
• DOI: 10.1038/s41375-020-0853-6

We studied by questionnaire 530 subjects with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) in Hubei Province during the recent SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Five developed confirmed ( N  = 4) or probable COVID-19 ( N  = 1). Prevalence of COVID-19 in our subjects, 0.9% (95% Confidence Interval, 0.1, 1.8%) was ninefold higher than 0.1% (0, 0.12%) reported in normals but lower than 10% (6, 17%) reported in hospitalised persons with other haematological cancers or normal health-care providers, 7% (4, 12%). Co-variates associated with an increased risk of developing COVID-19 amongst persons with CML were exposure to someone infected with SARS-CoV-2 ( P  = 0.037), no complete haematologic response ( P  = 0.003) and co-morbidity(ies) ( P  = 0.024). There was also an increased risk of developing COVID-19 in subjects in advanced phase CML ( P  = 0.004) even when they achieved a complete cytogenetic response or major molecular response at the time of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. 1 of 21 subjects receiving 3rd generation tyrosine kinase-inhibitor (TKI) developed COVID-19 versus 3 of 346 subjects receiving imatinib versus 0 of 162 subjects receiving 2nd generation TKIs ( P  = 0.096). Other co-variates such as age and TKI-therapy duration were not significantly associated with an increased risk of developing COVID-19. Persons with these risk factors may benefit from increased surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infection and possible protective isolation.