Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on lung cancer patients: A meta-analysis

Linlin Wang; Ye Wang; Xianbin Cheng; Xingzhao Li; Jun Li

doi:10.1016/j.tranon.2022.101605

Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on lung cancer patients: A meta-analysis

Transl Oncol. 2023 Feb:28:101605. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2022.101605. Epub 2022 Dec 19.

Authors

Linlin Wang¹, Ye Wang², Xianbin Cheng³, Xingzhao Li¹, Jun Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ultrasound, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, China.
² Department of Pediatrics, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, China.
³ Department of Gastrointestinal Colorectal and Anal Surgery, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, China.
⁴ Department of Hematology and Oncology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, China. Electronic address: ljun01@jlu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a great challenge to the treatment of lung cancer patients.

Materials and methods: The PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched for studies published before March 15, 2022, and Stata 14.0 software was used to perform a meta-analysis with a random-effects model. The odds ratio (OR) along with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was reported.

Results: Our meta-analysis included 80 articles with 318,352 patients involved. The proportion of lung cancer patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was 2.4% (95% CI: 0.02-0.03) prior to the Omicron variant outbreak. Among COVID-19 patients, those with lung cancer showed a higher mortality rate than those with other types of malignant solid tumors (OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.61-2.06) and non-cancer patients (OR = 4.67, 95% CI: 3.61-6.05); however, no significant difference was observed in the mortality rate between patients with lung cancer and those with hematologic malignancies (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 0.85-1.33). SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly increased the mortality rate in lung cancer patients (OR = 8.94, 95% CI: 6.50-12.31). By contrast, the all-cause mortality rate in lung cancer patients (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.69-1.57) and the proportion of patients diagnosed with advanced lung cancer (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.85-1.27) did not significantly change before and after the pandemic.

Conclusions: More attention should be paid on improving the health of lung cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Lung cancer; Meta-analysis; SARS-CoV-2.