• A Marra, D Generali, P Zagami, V Cervoni, S Gandini, S Venturini, S Morganti, R Passerini, R Orecchia, and G Curigliano.
• Division of Early Drug Development for Innovative Therapies, IEO, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan, Italy; Department of Oncology and Haemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
• Ann. Oncol. 2021 Jan 1; 32 (1): 113-119.

BackgroundPatients with cancer have high risk for severe complications and poor outcome to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related disease [coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)]. Almost all subjects with COVID-19 develop anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) within 3 weeks after infection. No data are available on the seroconversion rates of cancer patients and COVID-19.Patients And MethodsWe conducted a multicenter, observational, prospective study that enrolled (i) patients and oncology health professionals with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by real-time RT-PCR assays on nasal/pharyngeal swab specimens; (ii) patients and oncology health professionals with clinical or radiological suspicious of infection by SARS-CoV-2; and (iii) patients with cancer who are considered at high risk for infection and eligible for active therapy and/or major surgery. All enrolled subjects were tested with the 2019-nCoV IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette, which is a qualitative membrane-based immunoassay for the detection of IgG and IgM antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. The aim of the study was to evaluate anti-SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion rate in patients with cancer and oncology health care professionals with confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19.ResultsFrom 30 March 2020 to 11 May 2020, 166 subjects were enrolled in the study. Among them, cancer patients and health workers were 61 (36.7%) and 105 (63.3%), respectively. Overall, 86 subjects (51.8%) had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis by RT-PCR testing on nasopharyngeal swab specimen, and 60 (36.2%) had a clinical suspicious of COVID-19. Median time from symptom onset (for cases not confirmed by RT-PCR) or RT-PCR confirmation to serum antibody test was 17 days (interquartile range 26). In the population with confirmed RT-PCR, 83.8% of cases were IgG positive. No difference in IgG positivity was observed between cancer patients and health workers (87.9% versus 80.5%; P = 0.39).ConclusionsOur data indicate that SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG antibody detection do not differ between cancer patients and healthy subjects.Copyright © 2020 European Society for Medical Oncology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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