Outcome of COVID-19 in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Introduction: In this study, we aim to report the outcome of COVID-19 in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI).

Method: The data of 16 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients with CML receiving TKI and age, gender, and comorbid disease matched COVID-19 patients without cancer at a 3/1 ratio (n = 48), diagnosed between March 11, 2020 and May 22, 2020 and included in the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Health database, were analyzed retrospectively.

Results: The rates of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mechanical ventilation (MV) support were lower in CML patients compared to the control group, however, these differences did not achieve statistical significance (p = 0.1, and p = 0.2, respectively). The length of hospital stay was shorter in CML patients compared with the control group; however, it was not statistically significant (p = 0.8). The case fatality rate (CFR) in COVID-19 patients with CML was 6.3%, and it was 12.8% in the control group. Although the CFR in CML patients with COVID-19 was lower compared to the control group, this difference did not achieve statistical significance (p = 0.5). When CML patients were divided into 3 groups according to the TKI, no significant difference was observed regarding the rate of ICU admission, MV support, CFR, the length of stay in both hospital and ICU (all p > 0.05).

Conclusion: This study highlights that large scale prospective and randomized studies should be conducted in order to investigate the role of TKIs in the treatment of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Tyrosine kinase inhibitors; chronic myeloid leukemia.