SARS-CoV-2 vaccines safe and immunogenic in most people with cancer

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/934460

 

 News Release 10-Nov-2021
Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection, are safe in people undergoing treatment for cancer. The vaccines produced modestly impaired immune responses in patients with cancer, but booster vaccine doses enhanced immunity.
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Massachusetts General Hospital

Individuals being treated for active cancer have a particularly high risk of severe disease and death from SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their aberrant immune responses from the cancer itself and from some therapies. A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology examines the safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in a large group of people with diverse cancer types receiving different treatments and is the most comprehensive study of its kind. It is also among the first studies to examine the effect of vaccine booster doses in people with cancer.

-----

The investigators found that the type of vaccine participants received was a major factor in inducing immune responses. Patients who received the J&J vaccine had considerably lower immune responses than participants who received mRNA vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna—which is consistent with what has been previously observed in healthy controls. Collectively, however, cancer patients’ responses to the three vaccines are modestly impaired relative to healthy people, but most patients have responses that are likely to be sufficient to protect against severe disease. “Our data suggest that patients with cancer should receive mRNA vaccines,” says Gainor. “In addition, patients who received the J&J vaccine should be considered for additional vaccine doses.”

Additional doses of the vaccine in the small group of participants who received them were safe and well-tolerated and induced higher immune responses. The CDC now recommends that people who are immunocompromised, including people with cancer, and older patients receive additional doses of vaccine.

Participants who had prior COVID-19 infection also had higher immune responses to the vaccine, whereas increasing age predicted lower responses, and immunity induced by all the vaccines declined over time.

Cancer treatment had a smaller effect on immune responses than the type of vaccine participants received. Patients who received chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, or corticosteroids had lower immune responses, but most were predicted to still be protective. Individuals who received treatments with immune checkpoint blockade tended to have enhanced immune responses.

“The vaccine side effects experienced by patients with cancer were similar to those experienced by healthy controls and were generally mild or moderate, which should be reassuring to patients,” says Naranbhai. Individuals who reported worse side effects had slightly better immune responses, and patients with prior COVID-19 infection also had more significant reactions to the vaccine.

-----