COVID-19 in Children with Cancer: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background: The emerging COVID-19 is less common in children than adults and has fewer symptoms. However, there are more concerns about the severity of symptoms in patients’ kids undergoing chemotherapy. Objective: This study aimed to investigate COVID-19 infection in pediatric cancer patients.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of 302 patients with COVID-19 infection confirmed by RT-PCR test and aged ≤18, referred to a multi-specialized pediatric hospital, Ahvaz-Iran, from 2020-2021. Children were divided into two groups: malignant (n = 31) and non-malignant (n = 271). Results: The median age of the patient was 7 years. 73.7 % of the patients were male. The most common symptom was cough (47.36%). On admission, leucopenia was recorded in 63.15% of malignancy patients. The Outcomes death was %0.7 and %3.2 in the malignancy and Controls groups, respectively. There was a statistically significant reduction between the malignancy and Controls group (P=0.02). Also, in terms of myalgia, the group of children with malignancy showed a lower percentage than the control group or non-cancerous children (P=0.04). Laboratory data showed that leukopenia, CRP, and ferritin levels caused by COVID-19 disease in children with malignancy were not significantly different from healthy children (p> 0.05). Conclusion: COVID-19 mortality in children with malignancy is significantly lower than in non-cancerous children. Further studies are needed to understand the course of COVID-19 infection in children with cancer.

Keywords: Cancer, Malignancy, Children, COVID-19, Mortality