Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Brief Commentary
Cardio Oncology with ACOS
Case Report
Case Series
Conference Review
Consensus Statement
Current Issue
Editorial
Erratum
Letter to Editor
Media and News
Molecular Insight Story
New Drug Update
News
Original Article
Position Paper
Response to the letter
Review Article
Short Communication
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Brief Commentary
Cardio Oncology with ACOS
Case Report
Case Series
Conference Review
Consensus Statement
Current Issue
Editorial
Erratum
Letter to Editor
Media and News
Molecular Insight Story
New Drug Update
News
Original Article
Position Paper
Response to the letter
Review Article
Short Communication
View/Download PDF

Translate this page into:

Short Communication
6 (
1
); 27-29
doi:
10.25259/IJMIO_30_2020

Outcome of ivermectin and doxycycline in cancer patients with COVID-19: A positive experience in Bangladesh

Department of Oncology, Square Hospitals, West Panthapath, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada,
Emerging Infections Program, IDD, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

*Corresponding author: Syed Md Akram Hussain, Department of Oncology, Square Hospitals, West Panthapath, Dhaka, Bangladesh. syedmdakram@gmail.com

Licence
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

How to cite this article: Hussain SM, Shuayb M, Rahman M. Outcome of ivermectin and doxycycline in cancer patients with COVID-19: A positive experience in Bangladesh. Int J Mol Immuno Oncol 2021;6(1):27-9.

The world, today, is facing an immense challenge with the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Bangladesh is the 16th ranked pandemic part of the world with 244,020 cases diagnosed and 3234 deaths to date.[1] At present, no FDA approved remedies are available to defeat this deadly disease. Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, has been found to inhibit the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in vitro.[2] When combined with doxycycline, an antibacterial drug, ivermectin showed encouraging activity in reducing viral load, possible molecular mechanisms of which have been proposed very recently.[3,4] Globally, a number of clinical trials are going on to explore the activity of these two widely used FDA approved drugs as a potential therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Although no systematic data are available, several studies including the European Society for Medical Oncology and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines have reported that cancer patients are more vulnerable to develop COVID-19 infection.[5] We sought to investigate the effectiveness of ivermectin plus doxycycline in COVID-19-positive cancer patients in a tertiary care cancer center of Dhaka city in Bangladesh.

This is a case series conducted at the Oncology and Radiotherapy Centre of Square Hospital, Bangladesh. A total of eight patients were treated with ivermectin and doxycycline combination to date, who met the eligibility criteria. The primary outcome was treatment response and the secondary outcome was treatment-related toxicity. Inclusion criteria included in this study were patients with any stage of solid malignancies or lymphoma proved by pathology; active disease being treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, biological agent, hormone therapy, or immunotherapy in neoadjuvant, adjuvant, concurrent or palliative setting; ECOG performance status 0–2; age between 18 and 75 years; RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2; have any of the symptoms of temperature ≥37.5℃, cough, or sore throat; and provided informed written consent. The exclusion criteria were allergy to ivermectin or doxycycline; received ivermectin, doxycycline, hydroxychloroquine, or chloroquine phosphate within the past 4 weeks; a history of chronic heart, liver, or kidney diseases; pregnant or lactating women; multiple primary malignancies; and joined in other clinical trials.

When came to our outpatient department for their scheduled cancer treatment, RT-PCR for COVID-19 was done as per the routine protocol of the hospital. No patient was found to be impaired immune systems, that is, no leukocytopenia, thrombocytopenia, or not receiving immunosuppressants. All presented with mild symptoms of COVID-19 [Table 1]. Scheduled treatment (chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy) was postponed, once COVID-19 was confirmed and started tablet ivermectin (12 mg for patients with 80 kg weight and 18 mg for those with above 80 kg weight) single dose and cap doxycycline (100 mg) twice daily for 5 days. Parallelly, the patients received supportive management for their symptoms. On day 6, nasal swabs were collected for RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 which appeared negative for all patients, and the consecutive test was done on day 7 also appeared negative. All patients became free from the symptoms of COVID-19 after this period. Then, their cancer treatment was resumed with intensive surveillance. There was no reported toxicity of epigastric distress, abdominal discomfort, vomiting, diarrhea, or skin rash.

Table 1: Characteristics of COVID-19-infected cancer patients treated with oral ivermectin plus doxycycline.
Patient Diagnosis Stage Age Comorbidity Ongoing cancer treatment COVID-19 symptoms
Case 1 Gestational trophoblastic tumor FIGOa Prognostic score III 35 Nil 2 weekly intramuscular methotrexate Fever
Case 2 Breast cancer IIB 60 Nil Adjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide Fever
Case 3 Head and neck cancer II 60 DMb, HTNc Definitive CCRTd with weekly cisplatin Fever and cough
Case 4 Breast cancer IIB 40 Nil Adjuvant chemotherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide Fever and mild cough
Case 5 Breast cancer IIIC 62 DMb Adjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin and cyclophosphamide Fever
Case 6 Lung cancer IIIC 70 HTNc CCRTd with weekly paclitaxel and carboplatin Fever and cough
Case 7 Biliary tract cancer IIIB 67 DMb, HTNc Adjuvant chemotherapy with 4 weekly gemcitabine Fever
Case 8 Breast cancer IIIC 53 Nil Adjuvant endocrine therapy with letrozole Fever, mild cough
FIGO: International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, bDM: Diabetes mellitus, cHTN: Hypertension, dCCRT: Concurrent chemoradiation therapy

The World Health Organization estimated that the period of this viral shedding is up to 9 days and 20 days for the patients with mild symptoms and for those who are hospitalized, respectively.[1] We report data of eight SARSCoV-2-infected cancer patients who were treated with ivermectin and doxycycline combination and recovered in 6 days only. In addition, our patients remained non-infectious to other people in the hospital as the successive two PCR tests were negative. Ongoing oncological managements were not compromised for any of the patients, except the 5-day treatment delay over the duration of ivermectin plus doxycycline therapy. All patients were able to complete the remainder of their chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy without any serious adverse events.

Managing cancer patients are challenging in the era of COVID-19 of today. Despite the fact that the risk/benefit ratio of cancer treatment is important without imposing the patients of being further immunosuppressed and seriously ill from SARS-CoV-2 infection, cancer-related mortality must not be ignored. Especially for curable cancers, the continuation of active oncological management is crucial to achieve cure and survival benefits. Alteration of treatment regimens, switching to oral treatment, long-term treatment breaks all can seriously threaten the treatment outcome of cancer patients even for those who are in palliative settings. Ivermectin plus doxycycline therapy, though tested in a very small number of patients in our study, resulted in very promising activity against COVID-19, and this is the first-ever data yield from cancer patients. We believe that our preliminary findings could be used as a building block for future large-scale studies, and randomized controlled trials including only cancer patients are warranted to validate the efficacy of this therapy.

Declaration of patient consent

The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

References

  1. . World Health Organization. Available from: https://www.covid19.who.int [Last accessed on 2020 Aug 10]
    [Google Scholar]
  2. , , , , . The FDA-approved drug ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Antiviral Res. 2020;178:104787.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  3. . A Combination of Ivermectin and Doxycycline Possibly Blocks the Viral Entry and Modulate the Innate Immune Response in COVID-19 Patients. New York: ChemRxiv;. ;2020
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  4. . Cellular and Molecular Pathways of COVID-19 and Potential Points of Therapeutic Intervention. Front Pharmacol. 2020;11:1169.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  5. , , , , . Managing COVID-19 in the oncology clinic and avoiding the distraction effect. Ann Oncol. 2020;31:553-5.
    [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Fulltext Views
20,011

PDF downloads
2,695
View/Download PDF
Download Citations
BibTeX
RIS
Show Sections