COVID-19 in chronic myeloid leukemia patients in Latin America

Abstract

This observational, multicenter study aimed to report the clinical evolution of COVID-19 in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in Latin America. A total of 92 patients presented with COVID-19 between March and December 2020, 26% of whom were severe or critical. The median age at COVID-19 diagnosis was 48 years (22–79 years), 32% were 60 years or older, and 61% were male. Thirty-nine patients presented with at least one comorbidity (42.3%). Eighty-one patients recovered (88%), and 11 (11.9%) died from COVID-19. There was one case of reinfection. Patients with a major molecular response presented superior overall survival compared to patients with no major molecular response (91 vs. 61%, respectively; p = 0.004). Patients in treatment-free remission and receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitors showed higher survival rates than patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and those who did not receive tyrosine kinase inhibitors (100, 89, 50, and 33%, respectively; p < 0.001).

Keywords:

• chronic myeloid leukemia
• COVID-19
• survival
• molecular response
• SARS-COV-2

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Associação Brasileira de Hematologia e Hemoterapia, all the participating centers from the Latin America Leukemia Net (LALNET), the Brazilian Working Group of CML, and our CML patients.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests concerning this work.