Cancer Progression and Prolonged Viral Persistence Among COVID-19 + Cancer Patients. SOAP recruited 41 (23 solid and 18 hematological) patients confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 positive on nasopharyngeal swabs and 35 non-virus-exposed cancer controls (Table 1) .We matched the exposed and non-exposed cancer patients for age (mean: 64 versus 57), BMI (24.8 versus 27.0) and tumor type; both cohorts ....