Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA virus shedding and lymphopenia are hallmarks of COVID-19 in cancer patients with poor prognosis.

Patients with cancer are at higher risk of severe coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the mechanisms underlying virus-host interactions during cancer therapies remain elusive. When comparing nasopharyngeal swabs from cancer and noncancer patients for RT-qPCR cycle thresholds measuring acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 1063 patients (58% with cancer), we found that malignant disease favors the magnitude and duration of viral RNA shedding concomitant with prolonged serum elevations of type 1 IFN that anticorrelated with anti-RBD IgG antibodies. Cancer patients with a prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection exhibited the typical immunopathology of severe COVID-19 at the early phase of infection including circulation of immature neutrophils, depletion of nonconventional monocytes, and a general lymphopenia that, however, was accompanied by a rise in plasmablasts, activated follicular T-helper cells, and non-naive Granzyme BFasL, EomesTCF-1, PD-1CD8 Tc1 cells.

Cancer surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: The experience of a comprehensive cancer center performing preoperative screening by RT-PCR and chest CT scan.

Background And Objectives: During the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), oncological procedures considered to be urgent could not be delayed, and a specific procedure was required to continue surgical activity. The objective was to assess the efficacy of our preoperative screening algorithm.

Methods: This observational retrospective study was performed between the 25th of March and the 12th of May 2020 in a comprehensive cancer center in France.

The immuno-oncological challenge of COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, pose considerable challenges for the management of oncology patients. COVID-19 presents as a particularly severe respiratory and systemic infection in aging and immunosuppressed individuals, including patients with cancer. Moreover, severe COVID-19 is linked to an inflammatory burst and lymphopenia, which may aggravate cancer prognosis.

Immune responses during COVID-19 infection.

Over the past 16 years, three coronaviruses (CoVs), severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV) in 2002, Middle East respiratory syndrome CoV (MERS-CoV) in 2012 and 2015, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, have been causing severe and fatal human epidemics. The unpredictability of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) poses a major burden on health care and economic systems across the world. This is caused by the paucity of in-depth knowledge of the risk factors for severe COVID-19, insufficient diagnostic tools for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the absence of specific and effective drug treatments.

Treatment of invasive fungal infections in intensive care units with micafungin: The MYRIADE study.

Background: Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) contribute significantly to nosocomial illness in intensive care units (ICUs). Current practice guidelines recommend echinocandins, such as micafungin, for the treatment of invasive candidiasis. However, limited information on their use in real-world practice is available.

Use of Micafungin for the Prevention and Treatment of Invasive Fungal Infections in Everyday Pediatric Care in France: Results of the MYRIADE Study.

Background: Invasive fungal infections are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. Safety and effectiveness of antifungal agents is a particular concern in pediatric populations, where data are often limited. Micafungin is an echinocandin with demonstrated antifungal activity against a wide spectrum of Candida spp.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia and bloodstream infections in intensive care unit cancer patients: a retrospective 12-year study on 3388 prospectively monitored patients.

Purpose: Some publications suggest high rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and of nosocomial pneumonia portending a poor prognosis in ICU cancer patients. A better understanding of the epidemiology of HAIs in these patients is needed.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of all the patients hospitalized for ≥ 48 h during a 12-year period in the 12-bed ICU of the Gustave Roussy hospital, monitored prospectively for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and bloodstream infection (BSI) and for use of medical devices.

Differential time to positivity of central and peripheral blood cultures is inaccurate for the diagnosis of Staphylococcus aureus long-term catheter-related sepsis.

Objectives: Differential time to positivity of cultures of blood drawn simultaneously from central venous catheter and peripheral sites is widely used to diagnose catheter-related bloodstream infections without removing the catheter. However, the accuracy of this technique for some pathogens, such as Staphylococcus aureus, is debated in routine practice.

Methods: In a 320-bed reference cancer centre, the charts of patients with at least one blood culture positive for S.

Enterocytozoon bieneusi Microsporidiosis in Stem Cell Transplant Recipients Treated with Fumagillin.

Enterocytozoon bieneusi microsporidiosis is an emerging disease in immunocompromised patients. We report 2 cases of this disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients successfully treated with fumagillin. Thrombocytopenia occurred but without major adverse events.

Invasive cutaneous infection due to Scopulariopsis brevicaulis unsuccessfully treated with high-dose micafungin in a neutropenic patient.

Scopulariopsis brevicaulis onychomycosis with local cutaneous invasion was diagnosed in an acute leukemia patient and unsuccessfully treated with high-dose micafungin, based on antifungal susceptibility testing. This case should alert clinicians to the possible severe evolution of onychomycosis in neutropenic patients and suggests that surgery should be preferred in such a situation.

Monitoring antibiotic-resistant enterobacteria faecal levels is helpful in predicting antibiotic susceptibility of bacteraemia isolates in patients with haematological malignancies.

Delay of active antimicrobial therapy in haematological patients with Gram-negative bacilli bacteraemia during profound neutropenia exposes them to increased morbidity and mortality. The digestive tract is the main source of enterobacteria causing bacteraemia in these patients. We thus evaluated the usefulness of broad-spectrum beta-lactam resistant enterobacteria (BSBL-RE) faecal shedding assessment in forecasting the susceptibility to BSBLs of the strains isolated from blood cultures.

Epidemiology and outcome of fungemia in a cancer Cohort of the Infectious Diseases Group (IDG) of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC 65031).

Background: Anti-cancer treatment and the cancer population have evolved since the last European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) fungemia survey, and there are few recent large epidemiological studies.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study including 145 030 admissions of patients with cancer from 13 EORTC centers. Incidence, clinical characteristics, and outcome of fungemia were analyzed.