COVID-19 Mortality Higher for Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndrome Patients

THURSDAY, Nov. 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The risk for COVID-19 hospitalization is low in adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), but these individuals have a high mortality risk, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in Frontiers in Oncology.

Barath Prashanth Sivasubramanian, M.D., from the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, and colleagues investigated mortality among AML and MDS patients with COVID-19. The analysis included data from 28,028 AML admissions and 28,148 MDS admissions identified from the National Inpatient Sample (2020 to 2021).

The researchers found that 1.2 percent of AML patients were admitted for COVID-19, and the AML-COVID-19 cohort had a lower hospitalization risk (adjusted odds ratio, 0.3) and higher mortality (21.7 versus 8.7 percent) versus AML patients admitted for other causes. Following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), AML patients had a higher risk for COVID-19 (20.2 versus 9.8 percent) and increased mortality (19.1 versus 6.7 percent) versus other causes. Among MDS patients, 2.7 percent were admitted for COVID-19, with the MDS-COVID-19 cohort having a lower hospitalization risk (adjusted odds ratio, 0.59) and higher mortality (19.6 versus 6.6 percent) versus other causes. HSCT did not alter the risk for COVID-19 hospitalizations in MDS patients (3 versus 3.9 percent), but these patients had higher mortality (17.4 versus 5.1 percent).

“These findings underscore the need for close monitoring and implementation of preventive strategies,” the authors write.

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