Characteristics of patients diagnosed for acute myeloid leukemia before and during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: the DATAML population-based cohort

Literature shows heterogeneous impact of recommendations to deal with sars-cov-2 infection on AML management during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Available French data only rely on monocentric observations or simulations. From the DATAML cohort, including all AML patients cared for in the centers of South-West France, we compared the characteristics of patients diagnosed in two periods: 2020 and 2015–2019. We use time series approach to describe the monthly proportion of patients with extreme values on hemoglobin, white blood cells, platelets, and blasts counts, as well as early deaths. We found a slight impact of the first lockdown on hemoglobin and platelets, with statistical significance reached only for platelets distribution gap between the two periods. Similar but less marked patterns were found for WBC and blood blasts. These did not translate in terms of early deaths, which was considered to be likely due to a favorable local conjuncture associating a moderate incidence of sars-cov-2 and the absence of bed closing in oncohematology or ICU dedicated to hematology in any centers providing intensive care for AML patients. Yet, our results might still be seen as an insight of what would have happened in less favorable contexts.