Real‐world assessment of the clinical impact of symptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (COVID‐19 disease) in patients with multiple myeloma receiving systemic anti‐cancer therapy.

Real-world assessment of the clinical impact of symptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (COVID-19 disease) in patients with multiple myeloma receiving systemic anti-cancer therapy Keywords: COVID-19; multiple myeloma; systemic antic-cancer therapy EN COVID-19 multiple myeloma systemic antic-cancer therapy e83 e86 4 07/20/20 20200715 NES 200715 Infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, resulting in an acute respiratory disease (COVID-19), is the cause of the current pneumonia pandemic, with a rapid rise in cases being reported in the European Union and UK.1,2 The UK index case was identified on January 31, 2020 and, given the rapid spread and high mortality rate of COVID-19, it is imperative to define the impact on patients with co-existing medical conditions.3 Multiple myeloma (MM), the second-most common haematological malignancy, is a cancer of the mature B-cell lineage, and is associated with both cellular and humoral immune dysfunction that renders patients susceptible to infections, especially of the respiratory tract.4-7 This, coupled with a median age at presentation of 70 years in a population with frequent co-existing medical conditions, means the outcomes of MM patients infected with COVID-19 warrants particular attention. Six patients had clinical/laboratory features of cytokine release syndrome.8,9 One patient was treated with ruxolitinib, but did not survive; one patient received tocilizimab (recovered); and four patients received supportive care only, none of whom survived. [Extracted from the article]