DISCUSSION
In this report we discussed the clinical outcome of a patient with
untreated CLL and other comorbidities which are considered to increase
the mortality in COVID-19 infection. In Italy, the most common
comorbidities observed in COVID-19 positive deceased patients are
hypertension (73.8%), and diabetes (33.9%) (Characteristics of
COVID-19 patients dying in Italy. Report based on available data on
March 20th, 2020, National Institute of Health,https://www.epicentro.iss.it/en/coronavirus/sars-cov-2-analysis-of-deaths).
The patient was empirically treated since no recommendations about the
management of lymphoid malignancies were available at that time.
Actually several guidelines about the management of lymphoid
malignancies have reported 5,6.
In our opinion, the reported case represents an unexpected result since
there is great concern about the potential negative outcome in
SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with malignant diseases. Moreover, the
leukemic CD19+/CD5+ clone, disappeared from peripheral blood during
acute phase of COVID 19, recovered in convalescent phase of disease.