SARS-CoV-2 Testing for Asymptomatic Patients with Cancer Prior and during Treatment: A Single Centre Experience

Patients with cancer are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19. As a result, routine SARS-CoV-2 testing of asymptomatic patients with cancer is recommended prior to treatment. However, there is limited evidence of its clinical usefulness. The objective of this study is to evaluate the value of routine...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Meti, Nicholas, Tahmasebi, Houman, Leahey, Angela, Boudreau, Angela, Thawer, Alia, Stewart, Janice, Reason, Paige, Albright, Kirsty, Leis, Jerome A., Katz, Kevin, Cheung, Matthew C., Singh, Simron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Communication
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7903264/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33419159
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol28010032
Descripción
Sumario:Patients with cancer are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19. As a result, routine SARS-CoV-2 testing of asymptomatic patients with cancer is recommended prior to treatment. However, there is limited evidence of its clinical usefulness. The objective of this study is to evaluate the value of routine testing of asymptomatic patients with cancer. Asymptomatic patients with cancer attending Odette Cancer Centre (Toronto, ON, Canada) were tested for SARS-CoV-2 prior to and during treatment cycles. Results were compared to positivity rates of SARS-CoV-2 locally and provincially. All 890 asymptomatic patients tested negative. Positivity rates in the province were 1.5%, in hospital were 1.0%, and among OCC’s symptomatic cancer patients were 0% over the study period. Given our findings and the low SARS-CoV-2 community positivity rates, we recommend a dynamic testing model of asymptomatic patients that triggers testing during increasing community positivity rates of SARS-CoV-2.

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