Background: Specific data regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
in pa-tients with neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are lacking. The aim
of this study is to describe the characteristics of patients with NENs
who tested severe acute respiratory syndrome cor-onavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
positive.
Material and methods: This is a worldwide study collecting cases of
patients with NENs along with a positive nasopharyngeal swab reverse
transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2
between June 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021. Centres treating pa-tients
with NENs were directly contacted by the principal investigator.
Patients with NENs of any primary site, grade and stage were included,
excluding small-cell lung carcinoma and mixed adenoneuroendocrine
carcinoma.
Results: Among 81 centres directly contacted, 88.8% responded and
48.6% of them declined due to lack of cases or interest. On March 31st,
2021, eight recruiting centres enrolled 89 pa-tients. The median age was
64 years at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Most patients had
metastatic, non-functioning, low-/intermediate-grade
gastroenteropancreatic NENs on treat-ment with somatostatin analogues
and radioligand therapy. Most of them had comorbidities. Only 8% of
patients had high-grade NENs and 12% were receiving chemotherapy. Most
pa-tients had symptoms or signs of COVID-19, mainly fever and cough.
Only 3 patients under-went sub-intensive treatment, whereas most of them
received medical therapies, mostly antibiotics. In two third of cases,
no changes occurred for the anti-NEN therapy. More than 80% of patients
completely recovered without sequelae, whereas 7.8% patients died due
to COVID-19.
Conclusions: Patients included in this study reflect the typical NEN
population regardless of SARS-CoV-2. In most cases, they overcome
COVID-19 without need of intensive care, short-term sequelae and
discontinuation of systemic oncological therapy. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd.
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