Severity of Covid-19 Clinical Outcomes and Mortality in Multiple Myeloma Patients over Year 1 of the Pandemic

• Published in: Blood 2021-11, Vol.138 (Supplement 1), p.2719-2719
• Main Authors: Martínez-López, Joaquín, Mateos, Maria-Victoria, López-Muñoz, Nieves, Senin Magan, Maria Alicia, De Miguel, Maria Dunia, López de la Guía, Ana, Sureda, Anna, Encinas, Cristina, Conde Royo, Diego, Rosinol, Laura, García Tomás, Lucía, Hernandez-Rivas, Jose Angel, Alberto Rojas, Javier, Alegre, Adrian, Blanchard, María Jesús, Escalante Barrigón, Fernando, Garcia, Esther González, Iñigo, Belén, Bravo Barahona, Pilar, Penalver, F. Javier, De La Rubia, Javier, Fernandez-Escalada, Noemi, Alonso Alonso, Jose Maria, Bladé, Joan, Lahuerta, Juan Jose, De La Cruz, Javier, San-Miguel, Jesús F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood-2021-149192

Introduction In the first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic when healthcare systems in many areas were overstretched, we documented that hospital mortality in multiple myeloma (MM) patients infected by Sars-Cov-2 was 50% higher than in age matched Covid-19 patients without cancer. In the following months, the pressure on healthcare systems in Spain continued although it did not reach the extreme levels of the first weeks of the pandemic. In this study, we proposed to determine if the severity of Covid-19 outcomes in MM patients has changed over the first year of the pandemic. Patients and methods The Spanish MM Collaborative Group (Pethema-GEM) conducted a survey at national level on plasma cell disorder patients infected by SARS-Cov-2 between March 2020 and February 2021. Sixty-six (69%) out of 96 contacted healthcare centers, from all 17 regions in Spain, reported 502 patients. Data on Covid-19 acute and post-acute phase outcomes (hospitalization, oxygen requirements, severity of symptoms and mortality) were reported first in May 2020 (Martinez-Lopez et al, BCJ 2021) and updated in February 2021. In this study, we compared outcome occurrence between two study periods: P1, a period of extreme stress for the healthcare system in Spain, from March to mid-June 2020; and a second period, P2, up to mid-February 2021 with a sustained but lower burden on the national health care system. Results Among the 451 patients with plasma cell disorders and a Sars-Cov-2 infection documented with an rRT-PCR positive test, 377 (84%) were MM patients, 15 SMM (3%), 40 MGUS (9%) and 19 amyloidosis (4%). The number of MM weekly reported cases was 57% (95%CI, 48-65) lower in P2 (188 cases in 35 weeks) compared to P1 (189 cases in 15 weeks), p