Studying cancer patients with COVID-19: NCCAPS and CCC19

Thursday, September 24, 2020

How do patients fare when they have cancer and COVID-19? Researchers developed the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) and the National Cancer Institute COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study (NCCAPS) to gain some insight.

In this episode, Brian Rini, MD, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and host of The Uromigos podcast, explains what CCC19 and NCCAPS are. He also discusses findings from CCC19 that were presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology Virtual Congress 2020.

NCCAPS (NCT04387656)

  • NCCAPS is a natural history study of COVID-19 in patients with active cancer.
  • It is a prospective study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, that is open at more than 500 centers.
  • The study is open to U.S. adults who are receiving active cancer treatment and either have COVID-19 or are awaiting a SARS-CoV-2 test result.
  • Researchers collect blood samples and other data from patients enrolled.
    • Blood is collected at baseline and at regular intervals incorporated into patients’ normal oncology follow-up.
    • The samples will be used to assess things like genomics, cytokine abnormalities, and coagulation parameters.
  • No data from NCCAPS have been released to date, but more than 100 patients have been enrolled.
  • For more information, visit the NCCAPS webpage: https://bit.ly/3ck8nBb.

CCC19 (NCT04354701)

  • CCC19 is a retrospective database that includes information on patients with active cancer or a history of cancer who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, with or without a confirmatory test.
  • Health care providers or their proxies from the United States, European Union, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and United Kingdom can report cases through the CCC19 website.
  • All data are deidentified.
  • More than 100 institutions are now part of CCC19.
  • Data from CCC19 were presented in two abstracts at ESMO 2020:
  • The data from LBA72, which includes nearly 4,000 patients, suggest cancer-specific factors are associated with a greater risk of 30-day all-cause mortality, including:
    • Progressive cancer (adjusted odds ratio, 2.9).
    • Hematologic malignancy (aOR, 1.7).
    • Receiving cancer therapy within the past 3 months (aOR, 1.2).
  • It still isn’t clear if certain cancer treatments increase the risk of mortality, Dr. Rini said, but researchers are investigating that.
  • For more information on CCC19, visit https://ccc19.org/.

Disclosures:

Dr. Rini and Dr. Henry have no relevant conflicts of interest.

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David Henry, MD
David Henry, MD, FACP, is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and vice chairman of the department of medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, then completed his internship, residency, and fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. After 2 years as an attending in the U.S. Air Force, he was drawn to practicing as a hem-onc because of the close patient contact and interaction, and his belief that, win or lose with each patient, one can always make a difference in their care and lives. Follow Dr. Henry on Twitter: @davidhenrymd. Dr. Henry reported being on the advisory board for Amgen, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, and Pharmacosmos. He reported institutional funding from the National Institutes of Health and FibroGen.



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