• Victor H Jimenez-Zepeda, Patrick Yau, Douglas Stewart, Jowher Berhan, Carole Chambers, Holly Lee, Jason Tay, Peter Duggan, Sylvia McCulloch, Paola Neri, and Nizar Bahlis.
• Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Tom Baker Cancer Center, Calgary, Alberta; Charbonneau Cancer Research Institute, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
• Rev Invest Clin. 2022 Jan 3; 74 (1): 16-22.

BackgroundThe impact of coronavirus disease-19 on the management of multiple myeloma (MM) has been recognized. However, the real effect on clinical outcomes remains poorly understood.ObjectiveWe describe a local experience of the management of MM patients and report their outcomes during the current pandemic.MethodsAll consecutive symptomatic MM patients seen at our center since 03/20 were evaluated.ResultsA cohort of 156 patients diagnosed from 01/19 to 12/20 was analyzed to interrogate differences in presentation patterns. A total of 553 MM patients were seen and/or treated at Tom Baker Cancer Center in the year of 2020. From those, 47.1% (n = 261) were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Sixteen patients tested positive and data are presented. In addition, a decrease of 21.7% in the rate of new smoldering MM/MM diagnosis was observed in 2020 as compared to 2019. Further, an increase in deaths was also observed in 2020.ConclusionsOur study confirms an increase lethality for MM patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. A balance between safety and need for cancer control should be emphasized.

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