New Pediatric Leukemia and Lymphoma Diagnoses During the
Coronavirus-2019 Pandemic, a New York Perspective
- Layne Silver,
- Pooja Desai,
- Sareen Shah,
- Julie Krystal,
- Matthew Taylor,
- Kristina Murphy
Abstract
Viral infections and seasonality are linked with trends in new pediatric
leukemia and lymphoma cases. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this norm,
and subsequently the international medical community observed a decrease
in new diagnoses of hematologic cancers in children. However, this was
not the trend observed at Cohen Children's Medical Center where, despite
examining fifteen months during the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not see a
statistically significant decrease in monthly cases. Rather, cases
remained constant as compared to pre-COVID-19 periods. This warrants
further study at a multi-institutional level to investigate the
association between COVID-19 and rates of pediatric leukemia and
lymphoma.