Risk factors affecting the clinical course of COVID-19 in patients with lymphoid malignancies in the Omicron subvariants era – a real-world analysis by the Polish Adult Lukemia Study Group

Introduction and Objective.Patients with lymphoid malignancies, were found to have a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and a severe course of COVID-19.Real-world data (RWD) is presented on the clinical course of COVID-19 in patients with lymphoid malignancies from the centres of the Polish Adult Leukemia Group (PALG).Materials and Method.A retrospective analysis was carried between October 2023 -February 2024 of patients diagnosed with COVID-19.Results.Antiviral treatment of COVID-19 was used in 72.9% of patients (51.8% nirmatrelvir+ritonavir, 9.4% remdesivir, 11.8% molnupiravir; the remaining patients were treated symptomatically.The hospitalization rate was 72.9%, but most patients presented with mild symptoms or asymptomatic COVID-19.Only 7.1% of patients required hospitalization in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and mechanical ventilation.The median hospitalization time was 10.0 days (IQR 15.0).A significant correlation was found between the length of hospitalization and the severity of COVID-19 course, assessed according to the AOTMiT scale, performance status according to the ECOG scale, number of previous COVID-19 episodes, use of antibiotic therapy, highest detected CRP and HCT (p < 0.05).On median, positive COVID-19 test result lasted 8.0 days (IQR 11.0), and the only risk factor for longer duration of COVID-19 test positivity was the absolute number and percentage of monocytes (p<0.05).Conclusions.Analysis showed that the clinical course of COVID-19 was mild in the majority of patients.Regarding the changes in the clinical course of COVID-19 over time, further studies are necessary to isolate the risk factors risk of severe infection.