Association of active immunotherapy with outcomes in cancer patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology/Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, P.R. China. Department of Nursing, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, P.R. China. Department of Biotherapy, Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, P.R. China. Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, P.R. China.

Aging. 2022;14(undefined)
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Abstract
BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 pandemic, there are growing concerns about the safety of administering immunotherapy in cancer patients with COVID-19. However, current clinical guidelines provided no clear recommendation. METHODS Studies were searched and retrieved from electronic databases. The meta-analysis was performed by employing the generic inverse-variance method. A random-effects model was used to calculate the unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) and adjusted ORs with the corresponding 95% CIs. RESULTS This meta-analysis included 20 articles with 6,042 cancer patients diagnosed with COVID-19. According to the univariate analysis, the acceptance of immunotherapy within 30 days before COVID-19 diagnosis did not increase the mortality of cancer patients (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.68-1.25; P=0.61). Moreover, after adjusting for confounders, the adjusted OR for mortality was 0.51, with borderline significance (95% CI: 0.25-1.01; P=0.053). Similarly, the univariate analysis showed that the acceptance of immunotherapy within 30 days before COVID-19 diagnosis did not increase the risk of severe/critical disease in cancer patients (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.78-1.47; P=0.66). No significant between-study heterogeneity was found in these analyses. CONCLUSIONS Accepting immunotherapy within 30 days before the diagnosis of COVID-19 was not significantly associated with a higher risk of mortality or severe/critical disease of infected cancer patients. Further prospectively designed studies with large sample sizes are required to evaluate the present results.
Study details
Study Design : Systematic Review
Language : eng
Credits : Bibliographic data from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine