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03-08-2020 | COVID-19 | News

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Cancer patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 characterized

Author: Shreeya Nanda

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medwireNews: A Chinese report has shed light on the characteristics of cancer patients with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Among 2818 patients with cancer and 2301 caregivers who did not display the typical symptoms of COVID-19, a comparable 2.9% and 2.1%, respectively, tested positive for the infection on the basis of the SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction and/or the serum-specific antibody test between 29 March and 23 April 2020.

None of the patients or caregivers with a positive test developed symptoms over a follow-up of 10–32 days, and there were no positive patient–caregiver pairs, indicating “feeble virulence and transmission of asymptomatic infections,” write Shao Wei and colleagues from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, in a letter to the Annals of Oncology.

Breast cancer was the most common tumor type among the cancer patients with asymptomatic infection, at 29.6%, followed by lung cancer, at 19.8%. The majority (85.2%) had stage I–III disease, while the remaining 14.8% had stage IV cancer.

Of the potential SARS-CoV-2 infection risk factors analyzed, such as age, sex, and anticancer therapies, only receipt of chemotherapy and targeted therapy were associated with a significantly elevated risk for infection, with odds ratios of 4.65 and 1.90, respectively.

medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2020 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature Group

3 August 2020: The coronavirus pandemic is affecting all healthcare professionals across the globe. Medicine Matters’ focus, in this difficult time, is the dissemination of the latest data to support you in your research and clinical practice, based on the scientific literature. We will update the information we provide on the site, as the data are published. However, please refer to your own professional and governmental guidelines for the latest guidance in your own country.

Ann Oncol 2020; doi:10.1016/j.annonc.2020.07.008

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