The Burden of COVID-19 in Adult Patients With Hematological Malignancies: A Single-center Experience After the Implementation of Mass-vaccination Programs Against SARS-CoV-2

• Published in: In vivo (Athens) 2023-11, Vol.37 (6), p.2743-2754
• Main Authors: RAPTI, VASILIKI, PAPANIKOLOPOULOU, AMALIA, KOKKOTIS, GEORGIOS, LIVANOU, MARIA-EFFROSYNI, ALEXIOU, POLYXENI, PECHLIVANIDOU, EVMORFIA, SYRIGOS, NIKOLAOS K., SPERNOVASILIS, NIKOLAOS, CHARPIDOU, ANDRIANI, POULAKOU, GARYFALLIA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0258-851X; 1791-7549
• DOI: 10.21873/invivo.13385

BACKGROUND/AIMDespite the widespread mass-vaccination programs worldwide and the continuing evolution of COVID-19 therapeutics, the burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with hematological malignancies (HM) remains elusive. The aim of the present study was to assess the clinical characteristics, outcomes and therapeutic strategies applied in HM patients hospitalized during the post-vaccine period in Greece.PATIENTS AND METHODSFrom June 2021 to October 2022, 60 HM patients with COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed. Exploratory end-points included the incidence of intubation, probability of recovery, mortality, and duration of remdesivir (RDV) administration.RESULTSOverall, mechanical ventilation (MV) was required for five patients and crude mortality was 8.3%. HM of lymphocytic origin (p=0.035) and obesity (p=0.03) were the main determinants of the risk of intubation and among several laboratory markers, only LDH>520 IU/l was proven to be an independent MV predictor (p=0.038). The number of co-existing comorbidities (p=0.05) and disease severity on admission (p