Mortality in adult patients with solid or hematological malignancies and SARS-CoV-2 infection with a specific focus on lung and breast malignancies: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Tagliamento, Marco; Agostinetto, Elisa; Bruzzone, Marco; Ceppi, Marcello; Saini, Kamal S.; de Azambuja, Evandro; Punie, Kevin; Westphalen, C. Benedikt; Morgan, Gilberto; Pronzato, Paolo; Del Mastro, Lucia; Poggio, Francesca; Lambertini, Matteo

Background A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to estimate the mortality in patients with cancer and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods A systematic search of PubMed, up to 31 January 2021, identified publications reporting the case-fatality rate (CFR) among adult patients with solid and/or hematological malignancies and SARS-CoV-2 infection. The CFR, defined as the rate of death among this population, was assessed with a random effect model; 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results Among 135 selected studies (N = 33,879 patients), the CFR was 25.4% (95% CI 22.9%-28.2%). At a sensitivity analysis of studies with at least 100 patients, the CFR was 21.9% (95% CI 19.1%-25.1%). Among COVID-19 patients with lung (N = 1,135) and breast (N = 1,296) cancers, CFR were 32.4% (95% CI 26.5%-39.6%) and 14.2% (95% CI 9.3%-21.8%), respectively. Conclusions COVID-19 patients with lung cancer have a comparatively higher probability of mortality than those with breast cancer.