As a group, COVID-19 patients with hematologic (blood) cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, had the highest mortality rate: 37% (20 of 54 patients). For patients with solid malignancies, the mortality rate was 25% (41 of 164). Striking differences were observed among specific solid cancers: the mortality rate for patients with lung cancer was 55% and colorectal cancer was 38%, compared with mortality rates of 14% for breast cancer and 20% for prostate cancer.

Certain underlying conditions--older age, hypertension, heart disease, and chronic lung disease--were significantly associated with increased mortality among cancer patients with COVID-19.


A detailed analysis of patients with cancer who died from COVID-19 shows that more than half of these individuals--37 of 61--had been in places with a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, such as nursing homes, hospitals or emergency departments within the 30 days before being diagnosed with COVID-19. This was before widespread social distancing had been implemented.

Montefiore has already changed clinical practice as a result of the study's findings, by using telemedicine and early and aggressive social distancing for cancer patients, and by opening a dedicated cancer outpatient and inpatient clinical service. It has also instituted bilingual peer counseling and deployed social workers and food deliveries to its at-risk population.

Montefiore is able to quickly identify patients with a known history of cancer who test positive for COVID-19 based on a daily collection and collation of data across the health system. This allows the care team to act immediately to ensure appropriate care for these individuals and track outcomes.

The study's other co-lead authors are Sanjay Goel, M.B.B.S., and Rafi Kabarriti, M.D. The paper is titled "Case Fatality Rate of Cancer Patients with COVID-19 in a New York Hospital System."

Additional Montefiore-Einstein authors are: Daniel Cole, M.D., Mendel Goldfinger, M.D., Ana Acuna-Villaorduna, M.D., Kith Pradhan, Ph.D., Raja Thota. M.S., Stan Reissman, M.S.W., Joseph A Sparano, M.D., Benjamin A. Gartrell, M.D., Richard V. Smith, M.D., Nitin Ohri, M.D., Madhur Garg, M.D., Andrew D. Racine, M.D., Ph.D., Shalom Kalnicki, M.D. and Roman Perez-Soler, M.D.

This study was supported in part by the Albert Einstein Cancer Center (P30CA013330).


About Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2019-20 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. students, 158 Ph.D. students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,800 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2019, Einstein received more than $178 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island.

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