Case report: Successful outcome of COVID-19 in the context of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: The impact of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and early remdesivir

Angioletta Lasagna; Antonio Piralla; Simona Secondino; Paolo Sacchi; Fausto Baldanti; Raffaele Bruno; Paolo Pedrazzoli

doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.944855

Case report: Successful outcome of COVID-19 in the context of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: The impact of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and early remdesivir

Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Jul 22:9:944855. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.944855. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Angioletta Lasagna¹, Antonio Piralla², Simona Secondino¹, Paolo Sacchi³, Fausto Baldanti^{2

4}, Raffaele Bruno^{3

4}, Paolo Pedrazzoli^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Medical Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy.
² Microbiology and Virology Department, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy.
³ Division of Infectious Diseases I, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy.
⁴ Department of Clinical, Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Therapy, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a major issue. None of the published papers have reported data on the outcome of HSCT patients with COVID-19 according to the vaccination status and the short course of remdesivir (RDV). Therefore, we present the case of a 22-year-old man with relapsed testicular non-seminomatous germ-cell tumor who was diagnosed with COVID-19 during his first auto-HSCT. Our case report is the first one describing the efficacy of early RDV (and its anti-inflammatory effects that might counterbalance the negative effect of the recombinant human granulocyte-colony stimulating factors -rhG-CSF-) in the context of severe neutropenia following HSCT with the concomitant onset of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; G-CSF; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT); neutropenia; remdesivir; vaccine.

Publication types

Case Reports