At the GU ASCO 2021 annual meeting, Dr. Daniel Kwon and colleagues presented results of their study assessing androgen deprivation therapy and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in men with prostate cancer.
This was a retrospective registry study of adult men with prostate cancer who underwent testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the University of California Health System (UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco) between February 1, 2020, and October 6, 2020. The University of California Health COVID Research Data Set (UC CORDS), which includes electronic health data of all patients who underwent testing for SARS-CoV-2, at the five University of California academic medical centers and 12 affiliated hospitals across California, was used. Association of SARS-CoV-2 infection and receipt of ADT (GnRH agonist or antagonist) within 6 months of COVID testing was determined using the Chi-Squared test. Analyses were also performed in race/ethnicity subgroups.
Overall, 5,211 men with prostate cancer who underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing were identified, of whom 97 (1.9%) tested positive. Among the overall cohort, 72% were white, 8% were Hispanic or Latino, 7% were Black or African-American, 6% were Asian or Native Hawaiian/Pacific-Islander, 6% were of other race, and 8% were an unknown race. There were 799 men who received ADT (15.3%) in the entire cohort, of which the odds ratio for a COVID-19 infection was 1.30 (95% CI 0.78-2.19). No statistically significant association between ADT and SARS-CoV-2 positivity was found within race or ethnicity subgroups. Among 97 COVID-positive men, 5.3% who received ADT died compared to 9.0% who did not receive ADT (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.07-4.88).
Dr. Kwon concluded his presentation with the following take-home messages:
- There was no association between the use of ADT and the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 identified in this study of a diverse patient population in the University of California Health System medical centers and hospitals
- These results did not suggest a benefit of ADT for SARS-CoV-2 infection or mortality, although the event rates were low
- In this setting of an overall low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, thus far, there is no strong evidence of a protective benefit of ADT
Written by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc – Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia Twitter: @zklaassen_md during the 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), February 11th to 13th, 2021