Collaborative Efforts Lead to the Launch of the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium Registry

March 30, 2020

Today, we passed the mic to Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, who moderated a discussion on a multi-institutional registry that has been created to capture data from healthcare professionals on patients with cancer who have suspected or confirmed diagnoses of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Joining Dr. Grivas is Jeremy L. Warner, MD, MS, as well as Ali R. Khaki, MD.

Welcome to a very special edition of OncLive On Air! I’m your host today, Jessica Hergert.

OncLive On Air is a podcast from OncLive, which provides oncology professionals with the resources and information they need to provide the best patient care. In both digital and print formats, OncLive covers every angle of oncology practice, from new technology to treatment advances to important regulatory decisions.

But today, we passed the mic to Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, associate professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, and clinical director of the Genitourinary Cancers Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Grivas, who is also an associate member in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and a physician in the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, moderated a discussion on a multi-institutional registry that has been created to capture data from healthcare professionals on patients with cancer who have suspected or confirmed diagnoses of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The survey, titled the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium Registry, was launched in late March 2020.

Joining Dr. Grivas is Jeremy L. Warner, MD, MS, principal investigator of the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium Registry and an associate professor of medicine and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as Ali R. Khaki, MD, a fellow at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who discussed the rationale for the registry and the impact it could have on the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic with regard to patients with cancer.

The survey for the registry comprises patient demographic information, COVID-19 diagnosis and course of illness, cancer diagnosis and treatment details, and information about the healthcare professional. With these data, investigators hope to form observations regarding which patients are at higher risk for being diagnosed with COVID-19, as well as which patients are more likely to develop severe COVID-19—related complications.

Listen on to hear Dr. Grivas, Dr. Warner, and Dr. Khaki discuss the collaborative efforts behind the creation of the Registry, the goals of the Registry, and the challenges that still need to be addressed.