1/n The ID service @sloan_kettering reports in @naturemed on determinants of #COVID19 severity in 423 symptomatic cancer patients treated at our institution. What did we find? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0979-0

2/n Overall, 40% of COVID patients needed hospitalization and half of these (20% overall) developed severe respiratory disease, meaning high-flow oxygen or mechanical ventilation. We observed an overall mortality of 12% within a 30 day follow-up period.

3/n Which factors predicted severe disease? Some are well-known and include age and medical co-morbidities. What about cancer treatments? Good news - recent major cancer surgery and recent receipt of IV chemo was not associated with higher hospitalization rates or severe disease.

4/n We did observe that patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (within 90 days) had higher rates of hospitalization and severe disease. We do not yet know the underlying reason for this observation and it will have to be studied further in other cohorts.

5/n A critical point is that a cancer diagnosis typically has a much worse prognosis than #COVID19. Cancer does not go away during a global pandemic and it is incumbent upon us to provide excellent, compassionate care to patients with cancer. What does it mean for patients?

6/n You should receive timely cancer care and the treatment modality with the highest chance of success, whether that is surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, or a combination of these.

7/n A word about the authors. This study was designed and led by amazing #WomenInSTEM including @mini_kamboj (senior author) - in her free time, she led Infection Control and is the go-to faculty member for #COVID19 @sloan_kettering @EBabady (second author) - in her free time,

8/n she developed the diagnostic PCR assay (used over 30,000 times) @evrnyc (first author) - made enormous contributions to Infection Control and in treating patients. @yingtaur (co-senior author) is the most talented bioinformatics MD I know. @meadp1 @T19R84 @MichaelGlickma1

9/n and @wolchokj made critical contributions to this study as well. Kudos to the entire MSK ID Service. It's an honor to work with you.