Within 30 days of being diagnosed with COVID-19, about 13 percent of patients with cancer died, according to a study published in The Lancet.
Researchers gathered data from the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium database on patients with active cancer or previous cancer diagnoses who were also diagnosed with COVID-19. They analyzed data on 928 patients, ages 18 years and older, from the U.S., Canada and Spain for whom data was available between March 17 and April 16. Of the 928 patients studied, 396 had active cancer.
Researchers found that 121 patients (13 percent) died within one month of their COVID-19 diagnosis. Patients with active cancer that was progressing were 5.2 times as likely to die as those whose cancer was in remission or who did not have cancer, they found.
Researchers also assessed the effects of using hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat cancer patients with COVID-19 and found that the risk of death was 2.89 times greater within 30 days for those who used the two drugs.