Review of risk of covid-19 in cancer patients and their cohabitants

Palka-Kotlowska, M; Custodio-Cabello, S; Oliveros-Acebes, E; Khosravi-Shahi, P; Cabezón-Gutierrez, L

Background Patients with history of active malignancy are at increased risk of infection and COVID-19 related complications. Sanitary protection measures are not specifically recommended within household. We wanted to study the risk of seroconversion in cancer patients according to their household exposure. Patients and methods The seroprevalence study is a prevalence study in Torrejon de Ardoz (Spain), and analyzed the seeroprevalence of IgM and IgG antibodies in 104,299 volunteers (participation rate of 74.8% of population) from May 29th to June 5th, 2020. Personal authorization was requested to collect by questionnaire the test result from cancer patients who attended the outpatients department of the University Hospital of Torrejón and their cohabitants between June 1 st and June 19th 2020. Results 229 cancer patients were included in the study. Sixty-four of the 229 individuals tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies (27.9%) and 22 patients were positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgM antibodies (9.6%). The overall seroprevalence (IgG or IgM positive) was 31.4% (general population seroprevalence was of 10% in Spain). Of 72 seropositive patients, 54.2% had intrafamilial exposure vs 45.8% did not. Among seronegative patients, 30.6% had seropositive cohabitants. The probability of seropositivity for a cancer patient was significantly related to intrafamilial exposure (OR of 2.684, 95% CI 1.51 – 4.76, p = 0.001). Conclusions Cancer patients are a high-risk group for SARS-CoV-2 infection, and could need to implement recommendations against virus transmission even in a household scenario as it is the main factor significantly related to seroconversion.