Kandeel EZ, Refaat L, Abdel-Fatah R, Samra M, Bayoumi A, Abdellateif MS, Abdel-Hady H, Ali M, Khafagy M. Could COVID-19 induce remission of acute leukemia?
ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2021;
26:870-873. [PMID:
34719343 DOI:
10.1080/16078454.2021.1992117]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
COVID-19 viral pandemic caused many mortalities in cancer patients especially those with hematological malignancies. The immunological response to COVID-19 infection is responsible for the outcome of cases whether mild, severe or critical.
CASE PRESENTATION
Two cases presented with moderate COVID-19 viral infection, concomitant with acute myeloid leukemia and T acute lymphoblastic leukemia, respectively. Surprisingly, after the administration of COVID-19 supportive therapy, the cases showed disease remission after a follow-up period of 12 and 5 months, respectively. Additionally, the blast cells dropped to only 3% and 0% in the bone marrow aspirates of those two cases, respectively, after it was 30% in both cases at diagnosis.
CONCLUSION
The immune response that emerged against COVID-19 infection could potentially produce anti-tumor immunity in some patients, or the virus may act as an oncolytic virus. However, further investigations are required to explain this phenomenon, which may help in finding a possible new targeted therapy for these cases.
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