AUTHOR=Kos Igor , Balensiefer Benedikt , Roth Sophie , Ahlgrimm Manfred , Sester Martina , Schmidt Tina , Thurner Lorenz , Bewarder Moritz , Bals Robert , Lammert Frank , Stilgenbauer Stephan , Kaddu-Mulindwa Dominic TITLE=Prolonged Course of COVID-19-Associated Pneumonia in a B-Cell Depleted Patient After Rituximab JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2020.01578 DOI=10.3389/fonc.2020.01578 ISSN=2234-943X ABSTRACT=

Patients with pre-existing comorbidities and immunosuppression are at greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe manifestations of COVID-19. This also includes cancer patients, who are shown to have a poor prognosis after infection. Here, we describe the case of a 72-year old male patient with B-cell depletion after maintenance treatment with rituximab for non-Hodgkin-lymphoma who had a prolonged COVID-19 course and initial false negative test results. Our case highlights the diagnostic pitfalls in diagnosing COVID-19 in B-cell depleted patients and discuss the role of B-cell depletion in the course and treatment of COVID-19. Furthermore, we investigated peripheral blood monocytes and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells in our patient. In conclusion, our case report can help physicians to avoid diagnostic pitfalls for COVID-19 in hemato-oncological patients under chemoimmunotherapy and tries to explain the role of B-cell depletion and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells in this context.