Table 1.
Clinical characteristics and interventions of reported COVID-19 cases with HMs
| Type of HM | Patient demographics (gender, age, place) | Symptom and incubation period | Laboratory finding | Radiologic finding | Treatment regimen (for COVID-19 and HM) | Clinical outcome | Comment | Reference | |
| T-cell ALL | Male, 8 years, China | Intractable fever, paroxysmal dry cough | WBC↓, ANC↓, ALC↓, HGB↓, PLT↓, IL-6↑, IL-10↑; Nucleic acid detection of SARS-CoV-2 ever turned to negative and soon back to positive | Lung inflammation and consolidation (initially); Floc-density shadow with GGOs (after antibiotic therapies) | CTX, Ara-C, up-leveled antibiotics, oxygen therapy, Arbidol, ribavirin, IFN, IVIG, etc. | Unstable and low SaOЂ2ɽ; Referral to ICU | 1. Patients with agranulocytosis tend to develop multiple infections or secondary viral infections and have dismal outcomes; | Chen et al., 2020 | |
| 2. SARS-CoV-2 might exist for an extended period in HM patients; | |||||||||
| 3. Repetitive SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid tests are needed to reduce false-negative rates and to detect the recurrence of infections. | |||||||||
| B-cell ALL | Male, 3 years and 10 months, China | Cough (for nearly 33 d), fever | WBC↓, ALC↓, AST↑, ALT↑, CRP↑; Initial negative results of RT-PCR | Dense texture in both sides of the lungs | Discontinued chemotherapy, IFN, sulfamethoxazole, others | Recovery | 1. Pediatric patients might bear longer durations of diagnosis than adults; | Zhao et al., 2020 | |
| 2. Prolonged duration of cough might be caused by a low viral load. | |||||||||
| ALL | Female, 62 years, China | Initial stage: productive cough, fatigue; Progressive stage: fever, shortness of breath | Initial stage: normal; Progressive stage: hemocytopenia, PCT↑, BNP↑ | Mild infiltration in the right lung | Lopinavir/ritonavir, antibiotics | Recovery | 1. Early symptoms of HM patients were uncharacteristic of the typical presentations of COVID-19; | Wu et al., 2020 | |
| 2. Mild COVID-19 might exacerbate the underlying hematologic diseases. | |||||||||
| AML | Female, 13 years, Italy | Persistent fever | WBC↓, Hb↓, PLT↓, CRP↑ | Bilateral increased reticular marking | Anti-microbial and antifungal therapy, HCQ, lopinavir/ritonavir | Recovery | Highly immunocompromised children on anticancer therapy might have a favorable outcome under proper interventions. | Sieni et al., 2020 | |
| APL | Male, 36 years, UK | Fever, cough, sweats | WBC↓, ANC↓, ALC↓, PLT↓, PT↑, d-dimer↑, ferritin↑, LDH↑, CRP↑ | Extensive, predominantly peripheral, consolidative changes | ATRA+ATO, enoxaparin, supportive management for COVID-19 | NA | 1. Both APL and COVID-19 are associated with coagulopathy, which raised diagnostic and therapeutic challenges; | Farmer et al., 2020 | |
| 2. Prophylactic corticosteroids to prevent DS should be reappraised in the context of COVID-19. | |||||||||
| CLL (progressed) and NHL | Male, 39 years, China | Moderate fever, productive cough, dyspnea; 25 d | WBC↑, lymphocyte percentage↑ | GGOs and pleural fluid | Oral chlorambucil (reduced dose), IFN, IVIG, methylprednisolone | Remarkably improved | 1. Laboratory findings are not reliable in HM patients; | Jin et al., 2020 | |
| 2. HM patients, as well as the glucocorticoids-therapy receivers, might have a longer incubation period. | |||||||||
| CLL (4 cases) | Male, >70 years, Spain | Fever (4/4), dry cough (2/4), diarrhea (1/4) | Ferritin↑ (3/4), lymphocytopenia (2/4), d-dimer↑ (1/4) | Bilateral or single-lung infiltration | Lopinavir/ritonavir, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, others | Recovery (4/4) | 1. The prevalence of CLL was defined as 0.95% (4/420); | Baumann, et al., 2020 | |
| 2. Despite coexisting with various comorbidity, the course of COVID-19 was mild and controllable. | |||||||||
| CML (accelerated phase) | Male, 47 years, China | Cough, fever, dyspnea, pharyngalgia | Lymphocytopenia | No sign of pneumonia | NA | Cured | Radiological findings of COVID-19 could be negative in CML. | Wang DY et al., 2020 | |
| CML (chronic phase) | Female, 89 years, China | Cough, dyspnea (oxygen therapy ineffective) | Lymphocytopenia, ALT and AST↑, Cr↑, troponin- positive | Typical pneumonia patterns | NA | Succumbed after a 3-d hospitalization | 1. Elderly patients with comorbidities have a poor prognosis and high mortality; | Wang DY et al., 2020 | |
| 2. The degree of lymphopenia is related to the severity of the disease. | |||||||||
| CML (chronic phase) | Pregnant female, 26 years, Italy | Fever | Testing positive on the swab | NA | Paracetamol, antibiotics | Recovery | Chronic phase CML patients on TKI are not at higher risk of developing COVID-19. | Abruzzese et al., 2020 | |
| MM | Male, 60 years, China | Aggravating chest tightness without fever or cough | ALC↓, CRP↑, IL-6↑ | Bilateral, multiple GGOs and pneumatocele located in both subpleural spaces | Thalidomide, moxifloxacin IV, methylprednisolone, tocilizumab, Arbidol tablets | Recovery | 1. Symptoms of COVID-19 might be atypical with coexisting comorbidities; | Zhang et al., 2020 | |
| 2. IL-6 receptor inhibitor might be effective in alleviating cytokine storm in COVID-19. | |||||||||
| HL | Female, 22 years, Ireland | Cough, fever, sore throat, chills, rigors | Lymphocytopenia, CRP↑, LDH↑, PLT↓ (transiently) | Infiltrates in the lower zones bilaterally | Pembrolizumab, lopinavir/ritonavir, antibiotics, HCQ and azithromycin, corticosteroids | Better | 1. PD1-inhibitor-induced pneumonitis should be carefully differentiated in the context of COVID-19; | O'Kelly et al., 2020 | |
| 2. Amid COVID-19, dual pathology for lung injury, CRS should be noted when using a PD1 inhibitor. | |||||||||
| NHL | Male, 78 years, Italy | Persistent fever, cough, dyspnea | RT-PCR on pharyngeal swab was twice tested negative for COVID-19 and turned to positive later | PET-CT: multiple FDG-avid lymphadenopathies and non-FDG-avid peripheral rounded GGO in the right upper lobe | Tocilizumab, CPAP ventilation | Worsen | 1. False or delayed results of RT-PCR should be taken into consideration; | Zanoni et al., 2020 | |
| 2. Co-infection with other pathogens might influence the accuracy of RT-PCR. | |||||||||
| Mantle cell lymphoma | Female, 52 years, France | Asthenia, abdominal pain, dry cough | Leukocytosis, LDH↑ | Early CT: no sign of pulmonary infection but multiple adenomegalies | NA | NA | The PET/CT features of COVID-19 were in accordance with recent publications. | Playe et al., 2020 | |
| PET/CT: FDG-avid bilateral ground glass and subpleural curvilinear opacities | |||||||||
ALC, absolute lymphocyte count; ALL, acute lymphoblastic leukemia; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AML, acute myeloid leukemia; ANC, absolute neutrophil count; APL, acute promyelocytic leukemia; Ara-C, cytarabine; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; ATO, arsenic trioxide; ATRA, all-trans retinoic acid; BNP, B-type natriuretic peptide; CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia; CML, chronic myeloid leukemia; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; CPAP, continuous positive airway pressure; Cr, creatine; CRP, C-reactive protein; CRS, cytokine release syndrome; CTX, cyclophosphamide; DS, differentiation syndrome; FDG, fluorodeoxyglucose; GGO, ground-glass opacity; Hb, hemoglobin; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; HGB, hemoglobin; HL, Hodgkin lymphoma; HMs, hematological malignancies; ICU, intensive care unit; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; IVIG, intravenous immunoglobulin; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; MM, multiple myeloma; NA, not available; NHL, non-Hodgkin lymphoma; PET/CT, positron emission tomography/computed tomography; PLT, platelet; PT, prothrombin time; PCT, procalcitonin; PD1, programmed cell death protein 1; RT-PCR, real-time polymerase chain reaction; SaOЂ2ɽ, oxygen saturation; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; TKI, tyrosine kinase inhibitor; WBC, white blood cell