Prognostic serum biomarkers in cancer patients with COVID-19: A systematic review

Te-An Lee; Shih-Han Wang; Chun-Tse Kuo; Chia-Wei Li; Louise D McCullough; Dhimiter Bello; Yun-Ju Lai

doi:10.1016/j.tranon.2022.101443

Prognostic serum biomarkers in cancer patients with COVID-19: A systematic review

Transl Oncol. 2022 Jul:21:101443. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2022.101443. Epub 2022 May 2.

Authors

Te-An Lee¹, Shih-Han Wang¹, Chun-Tse Kuo¹, Chia-Wei Li¹, Louise D McCullough², Dhimiter Bello³, Yun-Ju Lai⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.
² Department of Neurology, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, Houston, TX, 77370, United States of America.
³ Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 883 Broadway Street, Dugan Hall 108C, Lowell, MA 01854, United States of America.
⁴ Solomont School of Nursing, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 113 Wilder Street, Lowell, MA 01854, United States of America. Electronic address: YunJu_Lai@uml.edu.

Abstract

Purpose: Cancer patients with COVID-19 likely express biomarker changes in circulation. However, the biomarkers used in SARS-CoV-2 infected cancer patients for COVID-19 severity and prognosis are largely unclear. Therefore, this systematic review aims to determine what biomarkers were measured in cancer patients with COVID-19 and their prognostic utility.

Methods: A systematic literature review in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus was performed on June 16th, 2021. The search keywords coronavirus, neoplasm, biomarkers, and disease progression were used to filter out 17 eligible studies, which were then carefully evaluated.

Results: A total of 4,168 patients, 16 types of cancer, and 60 biomarkers were included. Seven up-regulated markers, including CRP, d-dimer, ferritin, IL-2R, IL-6, LDH, and PCT, were identified in eligible studies. Albumin and hemoglobin were significantly down-regulated in cancer patients with COVID-19. Moreover, we observed that the SARS-CoV-2 infected cancer patients with lower CRP, ferritin, and LDH levels successfully survived from COVID-19 treatments.

Conclusion: Several important clinical biomarkers, such as CRP, ferritin, and LDH, may serve as the prognostic markers to predict the outcomes following COVID-19 treatment and monitor the deterioration of COVID-19 in cancer patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cancer; Immunotherapy; Prognostic biomarkers; SARS-CoV-2.