Cancer and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Comorbidity, Mechanical Ventilation, and Death Risk.

BACKGROUND: The presence of comorbidity poses a major clinical challenge in the care and treatment of COVID-19 patients Moreover, having one or more comorbidities could be a life-threatening situation in COVID-19 patients Cancer is substantially associated with significant morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients However, there is not sufficient data to conclude that cancer patients have a higher risk of COVID-19 infection In this study, we reviewed cancer comorbidity and risk of mechanical ventilation or death in patients with confirmed COVID-19 METHODS: A comprehensive systematic search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, and CNKI, to find articles published until August 01, 2020 All relevant case series, case reports, systematic and narrative reviews, meta-analyses, and prospective and retrospective studies that reported clinical characteristics and epidemiological information of cancer patients infected with COVID-19 were included in the study RESULTS: A total of 12 cohort studies exclusively on cancer patients with confirmed COVID-19 were selected CONCLUSIONS: According to the findings of this study, cancer was not among the most prevalent underlying diseases in patients with confirmed COVID-19 Moreover, cancer patients infected with COVID-19 had the lowest risk of mechanical ventilation or death than the non-cancer infected patients