Effectiveness of the available early therapies in reducing severe COVID-19 in non-hospitalized patients with solid tumors on active treatment

Emergency use authorization of drugs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by regulatory authorities has provided new options to treat high-risk outpatients with mild-to-moderate Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted an ambispective cohort study of patients...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Angioletta Lasagna, Irene Cassaniti, Daniele Lilleri, Mattia Quaccini, Alessandra Ferrari, Paolo Sacchi, Raffaele Bruno, Fausto Baldanti, Paolo Pedrazzoli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-01
Series:Frontiers in Medicine
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.1036473/full
Description
Summary:Emergency use authorization of drugs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by regulatory authorities has provided new options to treat high-risk outpatients with mild-to-moderate Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted an ambispective cohort study of patients with solid tumors on active treatment to examine the effectiveness of these drugs in preventing the progression to severe COVID-19. Sixty-nine patients with solid tumors (43 women, 26 men; median age 61, range 26–80) reported a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Forty-nine patients received early therapy. Only one patient (14.5%) required hospitalization for COVID-19. As for safety, two patients (5.9%) reported nausea during nirmatrelvir/ritonavir. The majority of treated patients showed a reduced time to negative sample (73 vs. 18%, p = 0.0011) and shorter symptoms’ duration (94 vs. 27%; p < 0.0001) compared to the patients not treated with the early COVID-19 therapies. Our data suggest that early therapies may reduce the morbidity of COVID-19 in patients with solid tumors.
ISSN:2296-858X