Among children and adolescents with cancer and COVID-19 globally, one fifth experienced severe and critical illness, and a higher proportion of patients died than reported in the general pediatric population. The findings come from a recently published Lancet Oncology study that used data from 1,500 patients from 131 institutions in 45 countries including the U.S. The authors were also able to identify several clinical patient factors, including lymphopenia and neutropenia, which were associated with more severe disease. In addition, the study documented health disparities across countries and found that low-income and lower-middle-income countries contributed a greater proportion of cases with severe or critical illness. Media coverage of the findings included articles by NPR and MedPage Today.
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