CLL-specific scientific studies & literature related to COVID-19

In this section you will find a compilation of scientific studies and articles from the literature on COVID-19 relevant to CLL patients.

If you know about any current or published study on CLL and COVID-19, please let us know by sending us an email.

First published: 13 August 2020

Clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with COVID-19 severity in patients with haematological malignancies in Italy: a retrospective, multicentre, cohort study

Prof Francesco Passamonti, MD / Chiara Cattaneo, MD /Prof Luca Arcaini, MD /Riccardo Bruna, MD /Prof Michele Cavo, MD / Francesco Merli, MD et al.

Background: Several small studies on patients with COVID-19 and haematological malignancies are available showing a high mortality in this population. The Italian Hematology Alliance on COVID-19 aimed to collect data from adult patients with haematological malignancies who required hospitalisation for COVID-19.

Interpretation: This study adds to the evidence that patients with haematological malignancies have worse outcomes than both the general population with COVID-19 and patients with haematological malignancies without COVID-19. The high mortality among patients with haematological malignancies hospitalised with COVID-19 highlights the need for aggressive infection prevention strategies, at least until effective vaccination or treatment strategies are available.

Please access the full article here. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(20)30251-9

First published: 3 Sept 2020

When CLL meets COVID-19

In this issue of Blood, Mato et al report an international, multicenter analysis of 198 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and symptomatic COVID-19.1  In this analysis, COVID-19 appears to be more severe in CLL patients than in the general population and, although risk factors are the same as for the general COVID-19 population, the outcome of patients needing admission is poor, with a case fatality rate of 37%. The Mato et al paper is particularly compelling as reports of COVID-19 in specific diseases are needed, particularly in cancer where COVID-19 adds to the physical and emotional distress these patients already suffer. Also, clinicians need guidance on how to advise and manage these patients.

Please access the full article here.

First published: 20 July 2020

Outcomes of COVID-19 in Patients with CLL: A Multicenter, International Experience

Clinical Trials & Observations

Anthony R. Mato, Lindsey Elizabeth Roeker, Nicole Lamanna, John Allan, Lori Ann Leslie, John M. Pagel, Krish Patel, Anders Osterborg, Daniel Wojenski, Manali Kamdar, Scott F Huntington, Matthew S. Davids, Jennifer R. Brown, Darko Antic, Ryan W Jacobs, Inhye E Ahn, Jeffrey J Pu, Krista Isaac, Paul M. Barr, Chaitra Ujjani, Mark Blaine Geyer, Ellin Berman, Andrew D. Zelenetz, Nikita Malakhov, Richard R. Furman, Michael Koropsak, Neil Bailey, Lotta Hansson, Guilherme Fleury Perini, Shuo Ma, Christine E. Ryan, Adrian Wiestner, Craig A Portell, Mazyar Shadman, Elise A. Chong, Danielle M. Brander, Suchitra Sundaram, Amanda N. Seddon, Erlene Seymour, Meera Patel, Nicolas Martinez-Calle, Talha Munir, Renata Walewska, Angus Broom, Harriet Sarah Walter, Dima El-Sharkawi, Helen Parry, Matthew R. Wilson, Piers E Patten, José-Ángel Hernández-Rivas, Fatima Miras, Noemi Fernández Escalada, Paola Ghione, Chadi Nabhan, Sonia Lebowitz, Erica B Bhavsar, Javier López-Jiménez, Daniel Naya, Jose Antonio Garcia-Marco, Sigrid S Skånland, Raul Cordoba, Toby Andrew Eyre

KEY POINTS:

  • Both watch and wait and treated CLL patients when admitted for COVID-19 have high mortality rates.
  • Receiving a BTKi for CLL at COVID-19 diagnosis severe enough to require hospitalization did not influence case fatality rate in this study
This ASH paper is the largest multicentre study to date in CLL!

Please access the full article here.

 

First published: 9 July 2020

COVID-19 severity and mortality in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a joint study by ERIC, the European Research Initiative on CLL, and CLL Campus

Lydia Scarfò,#1 Thomas Chatzikonstantinou,#2 Gian Matteo Rigolin,#3 Giulia Quaresmini,4 Marina Motta,5 Candida Vitale,6 Jose Antonio Garcia-Marco,7 José Ángel Hernández-Rivas,8 Fatima Mirás,9 Mónica Baile,10 Juan Marquet,11 Carsten U. Niemann,12 Gianluigi Reda,13 Talha Munir,14 Eva Gimeno,15 Monia Marchetti,16 Francesca Maria Quaglia,17 Marzia Varettoni,18 Julio Delgado,19 Sunil Iyengar,20 Ann Janssens,21 Roberto Marasca,22 Angela Ferrari,23 Carolina Cuéllar-García,24 Gilad Itchaki,25 Martin Špaček,26 Lorenzo De Paoli,27 Luca Laurenti,28 Mark-David Levin,29 Enrico Lista,30 Francesca R. Mauro,31 Martin Šimkovič,32 Ellen Van Der Spek,33 Elisabeth Vandenberghe,34 Livio Trentin,35 Ewa Wasik-Szczepanek,36 Rosa Ruchlemer,37 Dominique Bron,38 Maria Rosaria De Paolis,39 Giovanni Del Poeta,40 Lucia Farina,41 Myriam Foglietta,42 Massimo Gentile,43 Yair Herishanu,44 Tobias Herold,45 Ozren Jaksic,46 Arnon P. Kater,47 Sabina Kersting,48 Lara Malerba,49 Lorella Orsucci,50 Viola Maria Popov,51 Paolo Sportoletti,52 Mohamed Yassin,53 Barbara Pocali,54 Gabor Barna,55 Annalisa Chiarenza,56 Gimena dos Santos,57 Eugene Nikitin,58 Martin Andres,59 Maria Dimou,60 Michael Doubek,61 Alicia Enrico,62 Yervand Hakobyan,63 Olga Kalashnikova,64 Macarena Ortiz Pareja,65 Maria Papaioannou,66 Davide Rossi,67,68 Nimish Shah,69 Amit Shrestha,70 Oana Stanca,71 Niki Stavroyianni,2 Vladimir Strugov,72 Constantine Tam,73 Mihnea Zdrenghea,74 Marta Coscia,6 Kostas Stamatopoulos,corresponding author75 Giuseppe Rossi,5 Alessandro Rambaldi,4 Emili’ Montserrat,19 Robin Foà,31 Antonio Cuneo,3 and Paolo Ghiacorresponding author1
Please access the full article here
First published: 29 June 2020

COVID-19 among fit patients with CLL treated with venetoclax-based combinations

Moritz Fürstenau, Petra Langerbeins, Nisha De Silva, Anna Maria Fink, Sandra Robrecht, Julia von Tresckow, Florian Simon, Karin Hohloch, Jolanda Droogendijk, Marjolein van der Klift, Ellen van der Spek, Thomas Illmer, Björn Schöttker, Kirsten Fischer, Clemens M. Wendtner, Eugen Tausch, Stephan Stilgenbauer, Carsten U. Niemann, Michael Gregor, Arnon P. Kater, Michael Hallek, & Barbara Eichhorst.

Leukemia (2020)

Please access the full article here

First published: 18 May 2020

Clinical Outcome of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Haemato‐oncology Patients

James A. Aries, Jeffrey K. Davies, Rebecca L. Auer, Simon L. Hallam, Silvia Montoto, Matthew Smith, Belen Sevillano, Vanessa Foggo, Bela Wrench, Krzysztof Zegocki, Samir Agrawal, Rifca Le Dieu, Edward Truelove, Thomas Erblich, Shamzah Araf, Jessica Okosun, Heather Oakervee, Jamie D. Cavenagh, John G. Gribben, John C. Riches

Summary: The initial reports from China show that patients with cancer are over‐represented among individuals who develop severe Covid‐19 after contracting the virus.(4) Patients with haematological malignancies are expected to be at increased risk of adverse outcomes from this viral infection, due being immunosuppressed as a consequence of the underlying cancer, and from the effects of therapy. Our data demonstrate that while patients with haematological cancers have worse outcomes after Covid-19 than the background population, the majority still survive.

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:10.1111/bjh.16852

Please access the full article here.

Published in Blood: 17 April 2020

The BTK-inhibitor ibrutinib may protect against pulmonary injury in COVID-19 infected patients

Steven P Treon, Jorge Castillo, Alan P Skarbnik, Jacob D Soumerai, Irene M Ghobrial, Maria Luisa Guerrera, Kirsten E. Meid, Guang Yang

Paper from latest ASH COVID related publications.

Please access the full article here

First published: 7 May 2020

Survival study of hospitalized patients with concurrent Covid‐19 and haematological malignancies

Fernando Martín‐Moro, Juan Marquet, Miguel Piris, Berta M Michael, Adolfo J Sáez, Magdalena Corona, Carlos Jiménez, Beatriz Astibia, Irene García, Eulalia Rodríguez, Carlota García‐Hoz, Jesús Fortún‐Abete, Pilar Herrera, Javier López‐Jiménez

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:10.1111/bjh.16801

Please access the full article here

First published: 30 April 2020

Management of CLL Patients Early in the COVID‐19 Pandemic: An International Survey of CLL Experts

Brian Koffman, Anthony Mato, John C. Byrd, Alexey Danilov, Brad Hedrick, Chaitra Ujjani, Lindsey Roeker, Deborah M. Stephens, Matthew S. Davids, John M. Pagel, Mazyar Shadman

You can access the full article here.

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/ajh.25851.

Published: 30 April 2020

Covid-19 infection in therapy-naive patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia

S. Paneesha,a,b G. Pratt,a,b H. Parry,a,b and P. Mossa,b,⁎

You can access the full article here.

Published: 24 April 2020

COVID-19 in persons with haematological cancers

  • Wenjuan He, Lei Chen, Li Chen, Guolin Yuan, Yun Fang, Wenlan Chen, Di Wu, Bo Liang, Xiaoting Lu, Yanling Ma, Lei Li, Hongxiang Wang, Zhichao Chen, Qiubai Li & Robert Peter Gale

You can access the full article here.