Background Cancer patients are thought to have an increased risk of developing severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and of dying from the disease. In this work, predictive factors for COVID-19 severity and mortality in cancer patients were investigated. Patients and Methods In this large nationwide retro-prospective cohort study, we collected data on patients with solid tumours and COVID-19 diagnosed between March 1 and June 11, 2020. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality and COVID-19 severity, defined as admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) and/or mechanical ventilation and/or death, was one of the secondary endpoints. Results From April 4 to June 11, 2020, 1289 patients were analysed. The most frequent cancers were digestive and thoracic. Altogether, 424 (33%) patients had a severe form of COVID-19 and 370 (29%) patients died. In multivariate analysis, independent factors associated with death were male sex (odds ratio 1.73, 95%CI: 1.18-2.52), ECOG PS ≥ 2 (OR 3.23, 95%CI: 2.27-4.61), updated Charlson comorbidity index (OR 1.08, 95%CI: 1.01-1.16) and admission to ICU (OR 3.62, 95%CI 2.14-6.11). The same factors, age along with corticosteroids before COVID-19 diagnosis, and thoracic primary tumour site were independently associated with COVID-19 severity. None of the anticancer treatments administered within the previous 3 months had any effect on mortality or COVID-19 severity, except cytotoxic chemotherapy in the subgroup of patients with detectable SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR, which was associated with a slight increase of the risk of death (OR 1.53; 95%CI: 1.00-2.34; p = 0.05). A total of 431 (39%) patients had their systemic anticancer treatment interrupted or stopped following diagnosis of COVID-19. Conclusions Mortality and COVID-19 severity in cancer patients are high and are associated with general characteristics of patients. We found no deleterious effects of recent anticancer treatments, except for cytotoxic chemotherapy in the RT-PCR-confirmed subgroup of patients. In almost 40% of patients, the systemic anticancer therapy was interrupted or stopped after COVID-19 diagnosis.

Background/Aim: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the least common but most lethal of thyroid cancer, despite various therapeutic options, with limited efficacy. In order to help therapeutic decision-making, the purpose of this study was to develop a new prognostic score providing survival estimates in patients with ATC. Patients and Methods: Based on a multivariate analysis of 149 retrospectively analyzed patients diagnosed with ATC from 1968 to 2017 at a referral center, a propensity score was developed. A model was generated providing survival probability at 6 months and median overall survival estimates. Results: The median survival was 96 days. The overall survival rate was 35% at 6 months, 20% at 1 year and 13% at 2 years. Stepwise Cox regression revealed that the most appropriate death prediction model included metastatic spread, tumor size and age class as explanatory variables. This model made it possible to define three categories of patients with different survival profiles. Conclusion: Distant metastasis, age and primary tumor size are strong independent factors that affect prognosis in patients with ATC. Using these significant pretreatment factors, we developed a score to predict survival in these patients with poor prognosis.Although anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is rare, it is one of the most aggressive malignancies. This type of carcinoma accounts for 1.7% of all thyroid malignancies and one-half of all thyroid cancer deaths (1, 2). The median survival for patients with ATC is 3-6 months, and it has a 1-year survival rate of 20% (3-6). Indeed, ATC most commonly presents in elderly patients with poor performance status, making it difficult to tolerate an active therapeutic approach (7), although some patients survive for a relatively long time after aggressive treatment (8, 9). In such frail patients, aggressive treatment may worsen the quality of life and occasionally even shorten survival; therefore, the selection of patients who will benefit from such aggressive multimodal therapy seems important. Optimal ATC treatment is questionable due to lack of randomized trials; most studies validate the benefit of surgery. Although some reports questioned the benefit of radiotherapy (10), improved survival has been shown with post-operative radiotherapy (11) and radiation dose escalation was also associated with longer survival rates in selected patients with metastatic disease (12). Combined chemoradiotherapy was favored over radiation alone (13,14). However, several series reported no benefit for chemotherapy (6,15). Retrospective studies identified some prognostic factors such as age, gender, presence of acute symptoms, tumor size, multicentricity, metastatic spread, white blood cell level, blood platelet level and serum albumin level, influenced survival of patients with ATC (13,16,17). Here, we reviewed data from 149 patients with ATC in an attempt to identify subsets of patients that either would benefit best from a more aggressive treatment strategy or for whom palliative care would be mo...

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