The prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection in cancer patients. A cross-sectional study at a tertiary cancer center in New York City

• Published in: Cancer treatment and research communications Vol. 27; p. 100346
• Main Authors: Ibrahim, Mudathir, Natarajan, Vijaya, Murthy, Pooja, Meghal, Trishala, Xu, Yiquing, Wiesel, Ory
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 2021; The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd; Elsevier
• Subjects: Asymptomatic; Cancer patients; COVID-19 infection; SAR-Cov-2 nucleic acid testing; Cancer patients; COVID-19 infection; Asymptomatic; SAR-Cov-2 nucleic acid testing
• ISSN: 2468-2942; 2468-2942
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ctarc.2021.100346

•Due to resource restraints in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing was prioritized for symptomatic cancer patients•There are reports of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases with risk of further spread of the virus•We found the prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 in cancer patients is similar to that of general population in the New York region•Implementation of Universal COVID-19 testing in all cancer patients could aid in treatment decisions and prevent uncontrolled virus spread.
Several factors raise concern for increased risk of COVID-19 in cancer patients. While there is strong support for testing symptomatic patients. The benefit of routine testing of asymptomatic patients remains contentious. We aim to evaluate the prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection in cancer patients.
Between June 1 and September 3, 2020, we obtained nasopharyngeal swab from asymptomatic cancer patients who were visiting a single tertiary-care cancer center, and tested the specimen for the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. We performed a descriptive statistic of data
We tested a total of 80 patients, of which 3 (3.75%) were found positive for COVID-19. A significant proportion of the tested patients were on active immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory treatment, cytotoxic chemotherapy (n = 34), and immunotherapy (n = 16). However, all three COVID-19 positive patients were only actively on hormonal therapy. All three patients observed a minimum of 2 weeks home quarantine. None of the patients developed symptoms upon follow up and no changes were required to their treatment plan.
Despite published evidence that cancer patients may be at increased risk of severe COVID -19 infection, our data suggest that some infected cancer patients are asymptomatic. The overall prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection in this population of cancer patients was similar to that in the general population. Therefore, since asymptomatic infections are not uncommon in patients with cancer, we recommend universal COVID-19 testing to help guide treatment decisions and prevent the spread of the disease.