The risk of in-hospital death from COVID-19 for patients with cancer differs by sex and cancer type, according to research published in JAMA Oncology.
Researchers found that, among women, 5 cancers were associated with a more than 2-fold higher risk of in-hospital COVID-19 death. Among men, 2 cancers were associated with a more than 2-fold higher risk of in-hospital COVID-19 death.
This study included data from 1,622,755 patients from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project’s National Inpatient Sample. All patients were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 between April 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The primary outcome was in-hospital COVID-19 case fatality rate.
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A total of 76,655 patients had cancer (4.7%). In the entire cohort, 51.8% of patients were men, and 48.2% were women. The most common comorbidities were pneumonia (74.3%), respiratory failure (52.9%), cardiac arrhythmia or arrest (29.3%), acute kidney injury (28.0%), and sepsis (24.6%).
The in-hospital COVID-19 case fatality rate for the entire cohort was 12.9%, and the median time to death was 5 days (interquartile range, 2-11 days).
The in-hospital COVID-19 case fatality rate was higher in patients with cancer than in those without it — 17.9% and 12.7%, respectively (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.29; 95% CI, 1.27-1.32). It was also higher in men than in women — 14.5% and 11.2%, respectively (aOR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.27-1.30).
In women and men, there were 13 cancers associated with an increased risk of in-hospital death from COVID-19. Women with 5 cancers — lung cancer, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, anal cancer, and ovarian cancer — had a more than 2-fold higher risk of in-hospital death from COVID-19.
Men with 2 cancers — Kaposi sarcoma and malignant neoplasm of the small intestine — had a more than 2-fold higher risk of in-hospital death from COVID-19. More details can be seen in the table below.
“While COVID-19 in-hospital case fatality risks were lower among women compared with men, the associations of a concurrent malignant neoplasm with the COVID-19 case fatality were overall more substantial for women than for men,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosures: Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.
Reference
Matsuo K, Mandelbaum RS, Vallejo A, Klar M, Roman LD, Wright JD. Assessment of gender-specific COVID-19 case fatality risk per malignant neoplasm type. JAMA Oncol. Published online April 27, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.0768
This article originally appeared on Cancer Therapy Advisor
