Is viral load important for COVID-19 cancer patients?

Researchers followed patients with COVID-19 who were hospitalized with or without cancer from March 15 to May 14, 2020, and tracked viral load. Their goal was to observe how many people died during that period and whether those patients tended to be more burdened. Two different tests, the “COBASSAR S-CoV-2 Assay” and the “Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 Assay,” were used to assess the relationship between viral load and in-hospital mortality on admission. These are lab tests that count virus particles.

During the March 2020 pandemic, researchers accessed data from 100 cancer patients and 2,914 undiagnosed patients from three different hospitals in New York City. The results of 19 treatments were different. They took into account whether the cancer was a solid tumor or a blood cancer, and whether the patient had other chronic illnesses.

How do scientists and doctors determine a patient’s viral load? This is done using a technique called PCR (polymerase chain reaction). In most organisms, genetic information is stored in molecules called DNA. However, SARS-CoV-2 has a genome made of RNA, which is a similar but different molecule. There is one strand instead of two. The number of virus-specific RNA molecules counted in the patient’s blood sample indicates how much COVID-19 virus is present.

To run this test, it looks like DNA because the viral RNA is initially doubled. It then uses PCR techniques to make many copies of that particular piece of DNA and make a new copy each time the reaction cycle is performed. Finally, the researchers asked how many PCR cycles were required for the number of DNA copies to reach a certain threshold. In the first place, the more viral RNA, the fewer cycles it takes to reach the threshold. The fewer viruses that are present, the more cycles are required. therefore, Cycle threshold First, the amount of virus present in the sample is shown.

Patients with active cancer showed similar results compared to patients without cancer. Cancer patients were non-Hispanic, white, and ex-smokers compared to non-cancer patients and were more likely to suffer from coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure.

Patients with hematological cancer (leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma) had a higher SARS-CoV-2 virus load than patients with other cancers and those without cancer. This makes sense because blood cancers are more susceptible to other infections, including COVID-19. A typical PCR protocol runs in about 20-35 cycles. The lower the cycle threshold, the higher the load. Patients with hematological cancer scored about 25, those with cancer were 29.2, and those without cancer were 28.4.

In non-cancer patients, 38.8% with high viral load died during hospitalization, 24.1% with moderate viral load died, and 15.3% with low viral load died. Among cancer patients, 45.2% of patients with high viral load died during hospitalization, compared with 28.0% of patients with moderate viral load and 12.1% of patients with low viral load. This data supports the differences in high, medium, and low viral load between non-cancer and cancer patients.

Viral load revealed can Predict if you will die of COVID-19, regardless of whether you have cancer. Patients with hematological cancer had higher viral load on admission than those without cancer. Patients with solid tumors had the same viral load as patients without cancer. The amount of virus in the body is related to the possibility of dying from COVID-19.

No difference was shown between patients with blood cancer, other cancers, or no cancer. The authors explained that other studies showed a clear difference in mortality between cancer and non-cancer patients. This may be because cancer patients made up the majority of previous study samples.

Reporting viral load in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with or without cancer is important to help healthcare professionals identify patients who may require more intensive and thorough monitoring. Information can be provided.