Open AccessGU-CA-COVID: a clinical audit among Italian genitourinary oncologists during the first COVID-19 outbreak
Author(s) -
Melissa Bersanelli,
Sebastiano Buti,
Mimma Rizzo,
Alessio Cortellini,
Carlo Cattrini,
Francesco Massari,
Cristina Masini,
Maria Giuseppa Vitale,
Giuseppe Fornarini,
Orazio Caffo,
Francesco Atzori,
Alice Gatti,
Serena Macrini,
Claudia Mucciarini,
Luca Galli,
Franco Morelli,
Marco Stellato,
Martina Fanelli,
Francesca Corti,
Paolo Andrea Zucali,
Ilaria Toscani,
Alberto Dalla Volta,
Angela Ger,
Cinzia Baldessari,
L. La Torre,
D Zară,
Alessandra Gennari,
Sergio Bracarda,
Giuseppe Procopio,
Camillo Porta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
therapeutic advances in urology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.115
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1756-2880
pISSN - 1756-2872
DOI - 10.1177/17562872211054302
Subject(s) - covid-19 , medicine , outbreak , audit , sars virus , virology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , management , economics
Background: Considering the growing genitourinary (GU) cancer population undergoing systemic treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we planned a clinical audit in 24 Italian institutions treating GU malignancies.Objective: The primary objective was investigating the clinical impact of COVID-19 in GU cancer patients undergoing ICI-based therapy during the first outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 contagion in Italy.Design, setting, and participants: The included centers were 24 Oncology Departments. Two online forms were completed by the responsible Oncology Consultants, respectively, for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) patients receiving at least one administration of ICIs between 31 January 2020 and 30 June 2020.Results and limitation: In total, 287 mRCC patients and 130 mUC patients were included. The COVID-19 incidence was, respectively, 3.5%, with mortality 1%, in mRCC patients and 7.7%, with mortality 3.1%, in mUC patients. In both groups, 40% of patients developing COVID-19 permanently discontinued anticancer treatment. The pre-test SARS-CoV-2 probability in the subgroup of patients who underwent nasal/pharyngeal swab ranged from 14% in mRCC to 26% in mUC. The main limitation of the work was its nature of audit: data were not recorded at the single-patient level.Conclusion: GU cancer patients undergoing active treatment with ICIs have meaningful risk factors for developing severe events from COVID-19 and permanent discontinuation of therapy after the infection. Treatment delays due to organizational issues during the pandemic were unlikely to affect the treatment outcome in this population.