Muñoz-Martínez S, Sapena V, Forner A, Bruix J, Sanduzzi-Zamparelli M, Ríos J, Bouattour M, El-Kassas M, Leal CRG, Mocan T, Nault JC, Alves RCP, Reeves HL, da Fonseca L, García-Juárez I, Pinato DJ, Varela M, Alqahtani SA, Alvares-da-Silva MR, Bandi JC, Rimassa L, Lozano M, González Santiago JM, Tacke F, Sala M, Anders M, Lachenmayer A, Piñero F, França A, Guarino M, Elvevi A, Cabibbo G, Peck-Radosavljevic M, Rojas Á, Vergara M, Braconi C, Pascual S, Perelló C, Mello V, Rodríguez-Lope C, Acevedo J, Villani R, Hollande C, Vilgrain V, Tawheed A, Ferguson Theodoro C, Sparchez Z, Blaise L, Viera-Alves DE, Watson R, Carrilho FJ, Moctezuma-Velázquez C, D’Alessio A, Iavarone M, Reig M.
Background & aims: Information about the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients with liver cancer is lacking. This study characterizes the outcomes and mortality risk in this population.
Methods: Multicentre retrospective, cross-sectional, international study of liver cancer patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection registered between February and December 2020. Clinical data at SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis and outcomes were registered.
Results: Two hundred fifty patients from 38 centres were included, 218 with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 32 with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA). The median age was 66.5 and 64.5 years, and 84.9% and 21.9% had cirrhosis in the HCC and iCCA cohorts respectively. Patients had advanced cancer stage at SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in 39.0% of the HCC and 71.9% of the iCCA patients. After a median follow-up of 7.20 (IQR: 1.84-11.24) months, 100 (40%) patients have died, 48% of the deaths were SARS-CoV-2-related. Forty (18.4%) HCC patients died within 30-days. The death rate increase was significantly different according to the BCLC stage (6.10% [95% CI 2.24-12.74], 11.76% [95% CI 4.73-22.30], 20.69% [95% CI 11.35-31.96] and 34.52% [95% CI 17.03-52.78] for BCLC 0/A, B, C and D, respectively; p = .0017). The hazard ratio was 1.45 (95% CI 0.49-4.31; p = .5032) in BCLC-B versus 0/A, and 3.13 (95% CI 1.29-7.62; p = .0118) in BCLC-C versus 0/A in the competing risk Cox regression model. Nineteen out of 32 iCCA (59.4%) died, and 12 deaths were related to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Conclusions: This is the largest cohort of liver cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. It characterizes the 30-day mortality risk of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients with HCC during this period.