BackgroundPatients with cancer are particularly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The systemic inflammatory response is a pathogenic mechanism shared by cancer progression and COVID-19. We investigated systemic inflammation as a driver of severity and mortality from COVID-19, evaluating the prognostic role of commonly used inflammatory indices in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with cancer accrued to the OnCovid study.MethodsIn a multicenter cohort of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with cancer in Europe, we evaluated dynamic changes in neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (NLR); platelet:lymphocyte ratio (PLR); Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), renamed the OnCovid Inflammatory Score (OIS); modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS); and Prognostic Index (PI) in relation to oncological and COVID-19 infection features, testing their prognostic potential in independent training (n=529) and validation (n=542) sets.ResultsWe evaluated 1071 eligible patients, of which 625 (58.3%) were men, and 420 were patients with malignancy in advanced stage (39.2%), most commonly genitourinary (n=216, 20.2%). 844 (78.8%) had ≥1 comorbidity and 754 (70.4%) had ≥1 COVID-19 complication. NLR, OIS, and mGPS worsened at COVID-19 diagnosis compared with pre-COVID-19 measurement (p<0.01), recovering in survivors to pre-COVID-19 levels. Patients in poorer risk categories for each index except the PLR exhibited higher mortality rates (p<0.001) and shorter median overall survival in the training and validation sets (p<0.01). Multivariable analyses revealed the OIS to be most independently predictive of survival (validation set HR 2.48, 95% CI 1.47 to 4.20, p=0.001; adjusted concordance index score 0.611).ConclusionsSystemic inflammation is a validated prognostic domain in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with cancer and can be used as a bedside predictor of adverse outcome. Lymphocytopenia and hypoalbuminemia as computed by the OIS are independently predictive of severe COVID-19, supporting their use for risk stratification. Reversal of the COVID-19-induced proinflammatory state is a putative therapeutic strategy in patients with cancer.
commencing treatment. Three patients (21.4%) relapsed with median time to relapse of 3.6 years. 15 patients (34.9%) achieved complete response after 30 days of commencing therapy and 5 patients (33.3%) relapsed with median time of 2 years. Five patients achieved very good partial response (VGPR), six patients with limited or no response. Summary/Conclusion: Renal disease is the most common presentation of AL amyloidosis followed by cardiac involvement. 2/3 of patients have elevated serum free lambda light chain and most of them have either MGUS or smouldering myeloma on bone marrow biopsy. Diagnoses are mostly made on renal biopsy but rectal biopsy seems to be sensitive for diagnosis of amyloidosis infiltration as well. Bortezomib based therapy appeared to be effective treatment as first line therapy with 79% achieving good haematological response with sustainable remission status. Ongoing follow up and larger cohort will be required for more conclusive results.
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