Characteristics and prognosis of patients with COVID-19 and hematological diseases in Japan: a cross-sectional study

The Japanese Society of Hematology performed an observational cross-sectional study to clarify the morbidity, prognosis, and prognostic factors in patients with COVID-19 with hematological diseases (HDs) in Japan. The study included patients with HDs who enrolled in our epidemiological survey and had a COVID-19 diagnosis and a verified outcome of up to 2 months. The primary endpoints were characteristics and short-term prognosis of COVID-19 in patients with HDs. A total of 367 patients from 68 institutes were enrolled over 1 year, and the collected data were analyzed. The median follow-up among survivors was 73 days (range, 1–639 days). The 60-day overall survival (OS) rate was 86.6%. In the multivariate analysis, albumin ≤ 3.3 g/dL and a need for oxygen were independently associated with inferior 60-day OS rates (hazard ratio [HR] 4.026, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.954–8.294 and HR 14.55, 95% CI 3.378–62.64, respectively), whereas 60-day survival was significantly greater in patients with benign rather than malignant disease (HR 0.095, 95% CI 0.012–0.750). Together, these data suggest that intensive treatment may be necessary for patients with COVID-19 with malignant HDs who have low albumin levels and require oxygen at the time of diagnosis.