Background and importance As of December 2019, the world is facing a pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19). Symptoms resulting from the infection vary widely, ranging from asymptomatic disease to pneumonia and life-threatening complications.

Aim and objectives The aim was to study the impact of the active oncohaematological process on the severity and short-medium term mortality of COVID-19 infection.

Material and methods Observational retrospective study, carried out in a Spanish tertiary-level hospital. All patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and hospital admission between March 2020 and June 2021 were included. Variables collected were demographics, comorbidities; situation during hospitalisation (defining severe situation as admission to intensive care unit (ICU) or intubation) and mortality at 14 and 30 days after hospital admission. Data were obtained through the digital medical record and managed by R software (V.4–2021).

Results We included 1924 patients in the non-oncological group, 47.5% (915) men with a median age of 67 years and interquartile range (IQR) of 53–77. 128 patients (6.23%) were included in the active oncohaematological group, 58.6% were men (median age 72 (IQR 63–78) years). The most prevalent oncohaematological processes were: lung cancer (16.4%), colorectal (15.6%), bladder (10.9%), breast (10.2%) and prostate (8.59%). Metastases were present in 42.2% of patients. The main comorbidities presented by oncohaematological patients with statistical significance versus non-oncological patients were diabetes mellitus (30.5% vs 19.4%), dyslipidaemia (46.9% vs 32.2%), hypertension (52.3% vs 42.0%), chronic renal failure (18.0% vs 8.73%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (22.7% vs 9.94%), obesity (14.1% vs 15.2%) and heart failure (13.3% vs 10.6%). In the oncohaematological group, 44.5% were in a serious condition during their admission. The number who died compared to non-oncohaematological patients was 23.4% versus 13.6% at day 14 and 29.7% versus 18.1% at day 30. The two main neoplasms in the deceased patients were lung cancer (26.3%) and colorectal cancer (21%). Univariate analysis showed a relative risk of 1.72 (1.23–2.4) and 1.64 (1.23–2.17) mortality at 14 and 30 days, respectively, for COVID-19 in patients with active oncohematological processes versus non-oncohematological processes.

Conclusion and relevance The data reflect a higher mortality at 14 and 30 days due to COVID-19 in the oncohaematological population (72% and 64%, respectively). The oncohaematological population has a higher percentage of comorbidities associated with the total that may also influence this increased risk of mortality.

Conflict of interest No conflict of interest