ASLİ YİLDİRİM, LEMAN DELEN ACUN
Eurasian Journal of Medical Investigation - 2021;5(4):454-459
Objectives: Several studies have demonstrated that COVID-19 infection has been related with poor prognosis in can cer patients. On account of these findings, we aimed to analyze cancer patients infected with COVID-19 in terms of their laboratory and clinical findings. The relationship between the number of metastases with the outcome of COVID-19 infection was also examined. Methods: A total of 56 patientswith 25 females and 31 maleswere enrolled in this retrospective study. The pres ence of COVID-19 infection was proven through the use of nasopharyngeal swab and PCR technique laboratory tests. Diagnosis of cancers were confirmed with pathological findings on the biopsy or surgery specimens. The IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 program was used in the statistical analysis of the research. Results: Existence of 4 or more metastases were found in 21 patients who died during their follow-up period (p=0.000), as well as increased serum ferritin levels with a median of 905.3 ng/ml in death patients as compared to 173.1 ng/ml in surviving patients (p=0.01). Other laboratory findings that were found statistically significant between non-surviving and surviving patients, older age and being of the male gender were accepted as worse prognostic factors in this study. In addition, 15 of 26 non-surviving patients who received chemotherapy in their last month had worse prognosis than patients who had received chemotherapy more than one month ago (p=0.045). Conclusion: As a result, the management of cancer patients during the pandemic process, and particularly those with widespread metastasis, is quite challenging. Therefore, medical follow-up of patients with 4 or more metastases is of particular importance.
