Assessment of Regional Variability in COVID-19 Outcomes Among Patients With Cancer in the United States.

Importance: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a distinct spatiotemporal pattern in the United States. Patients with cancer are at higher risk of severe complications from COVID-19, but it is not well known whether COVID-19 outcomes in this patient population were associated with geography. Objective: To quantify spatiotemporal variation in COVID-19 outcomes among patients with cancer. Design, Setting, and Participants: This registry-based retrospective cohort study included patients with a historical diagnosis of invasive malignant neoplasm and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between March and November 2020. Data were collected from cancer care delivery centers in the United States. Exposures: Patient residence was categorized into 9 US census divisions. Cancer center characteristics included academic or community classification, rural-urban continuum code (RUCC), and social vulnerability index. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality. The secondary composite outcome consisted of receipt of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit admission, and all-cause death. Multilevel mixed-effects models estimated associations of center-level and census division-level exposures with outcomes after adjustment for patient-level risk factors and quantified variation in adjusted outcomes across centers, census divisions, and calendar time. Results: Data for 4749 patients (median [IQR] age, 66 [56-76] years; 2439 [51.4%] female individuals, 1079 [22.7%] non-Hispanic Black individuals, and 690 [14.5%] Hispanic individuals) were reported from 83 centers in the Northeast (1564 patients [32.9%]), Midwest (1638 [34.5%]), South (894 [18.8%]), and West (653 [13.8%]). After adjustment for patient characteristics, including month of COVID-19 diagnosis, estimated 30-day mortality rates ranged from 5.2% to 26.6% across centers. Patients from centers located in metropolitan areas with population less than 250 000 (RUCC 3) had lower odds of 30-day mortality compared with patients from centers in metropolitan areas with population at least 1 million (RUCC 1) (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.31; 95% CI, 0.11-0.84). The type of center was not significantly associated with primary or secondary outcomes. There were no statistically significant differences in outcome rates across the 9 census divisions, but adjusted mortality rates significantly improved over time (eg, September to November vs March to May: aOR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.17-0.58). Conclusions and Relevance: In this registry-based cohort study, significant differences in COVID-19 outcomes across US census divisions were not observed. However, substantial heterogeneity in COVID-19 outcomes across cancer care delivery centers was found. Attention to implementing standardized guidelines for the care of patients with cancer and COVID-19 could improve outcomes for these vulnerable patients.

Incidence and Prognosis of Brain Metastases in Head and Neck Cancer Patients at Diagnosis.

OBJECTIVES: Limited data is available on head and neck cancer (HNC) patients presenting with brain metastases (BM) at initial diagnosis. We sought to evaluate the incidence, management, and treatment outcomes of these patients using the National Cancer Database (NCDB). METHODS: We identified 465,925 patients diagnosed with HNC between 2010 and 2015 in the NCDB. 14,583 of these patients presented with metastatic disease to any site. 440 of these patients had BM at the time of initial diagnosis. Overall survival was compared using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazard modeling, propensity score matching, and subgroup analyses were performed. RESULTS: The median age overall was 62.0 years. Nasopharynx NOS (13.2%) and Parotid Gland (10.9%) were the most common anatomical sites with the highest frequency of BM. The overall median survival time was 7.1 months. Predictors for the presence of BM included distant metastasis to the bone, liver, or lung on univariate analysis, and bone or lung on multivariate analysis. High-risk Human Papilloma Virus status was associated with a lower chance of BM. No pattern was determined when comparing lymph node level involvement and BM. The median survival for patients receiving radiation therapy and multi-agent chemotherapy was 8.4 and 11.7 months, respectively. Immunotherapy administered as first course therapy did not influence median survival. Most patients received radiation (62.7%) therapy and chemotherapy (50.2%). CONCLUSIONS: The data extracted and analyzed from the NCDB should work to aid in the surveillance and management of BM in patients with HNC. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 131:E2543-E2552, 2021.