Background

Cancer patients are believed to be a vulnerable subgroup of patients and at increased risk of COVID-19 disease. They have been reported to at increased risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infections, having a more severe and rapidly evolving disease course requiring higher levels of intensive care, with increased risk of death. To date, there has been no systematic analysis of risk to a given cancer patient.

Method

The UK Coronavirus cancer monitoring project (UK CCMP) is a national cancer prospective observational study that has pioneered the use of clinician-led reporting to accurately monitor cancer patients across the United Kingdom. The aims are to systematically identify risk to cancer patients in terms of viral susceptibility and mortality. The overarching aims are to identify effective risk mitigating strategies and evaluate the success of these risk mitigation interventions in cancer centres/patients at a population level in the United Kingdom.

Results

The initial phase of the project has been successfully achieved with the roll out and implementation of the UKCCMP emergency observational response network. In six weeks, >250 emergency response reporting clinicians in 54 Cancer Centres have joined the UK CCMP and have logged >1,300 cases of COVID-19 in cancer patients to the initial phase of this project, the largest global cohort. Weekly data analysis and dissemination is now performed with reports going out to >1,200 individuals via social media and 500 oncologists via email bulletins.

Conclusion

To date, the project has identified that age and sex are the principal drivers of mortality in cancer patients, mortality to cancer patients is not significantly increased by having recent anti-cancer treatments and haematological malignancies are at significantly increased risk. Further expansion of this project is planned to enable longitudinal cohort studies of cancer patients at potential risk from COVID-19 and to identify effective risk mitigating strategies to reduce these risks.

Impact statement