COVID-19 Increases Morbidity and Mortality in Myeloma Patients: One Third of Hospitalized Myeloma Patients Die Because of SARS-CoV-2

Evangelos Terpos, MD, PhD; Professor of Hematology,
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Athens, Greece

COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the clinical care of multiple myeloma (MM) patients. The International Myeloma Society has studied the natural history of COVID-19 in MM patients since the start of the pandemic. Chari and colleagues published in Blood at the end of 2020 a retrospective IMS study that described the baseline characteristics and outcome of COVID-19 infection in 650 hospitalized patients with plasma cell disorders (96% of them had myeloma) [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33367546/]. Approximately 36% of patients were diagnosed during 2019 and 2020, and 54% of patients were receiving first-line therapy. Thirty-three percent of patients have died, with significant geographic variability, ranging from 27% to 57% of hospitalized patients. The multivariate analysis found that age, high-risk MM, renal disease, and suboptimal MM control remained independent predictors of adverse outcome with COVID-19 infection.

The increased in-patient mortality of MM patients with COVID-19 was also confirmed in a study of the Spanish Myeloma Study Group, which was published in Blood Cancer Journal [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33077708/]. Martinez-Lopez and colleagues reported that among 167 MM patients, inpatient mortality was 41% in males, 42% in patients aged >65 years, 49% in patients with active/progressive MM at hospitalization, and 59% in patients with comorbid renal disease at hospitalization, which were independent prognostic factors on adjusted multivariate analysis.