For patients with multiple myeloma, vaccination offers protection from COVID-19, but less than other cancer patients receive

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937726

 

 News Release 12-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

 

For patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, vaccination against COVID-19 provides some protection against coronavirus infection but to a far lower degree than the general population of cancer survivors, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators shows.

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 They found that, with a follow-up between 14-287 days, the estimated effectiveness of vaccine was 5.6% after two doses in patients with myeloma and 27.2% effective in people with MGUS, compared to 85% in cancer survivors not on treatment in general. (Effectiveness is a measure of the vaccine’s ability to prevent infection by the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.) The researchers also found that the effectiveness of the vaccine begins to decline about six months after patients receive their second dose.

The findings underscore the need for patients with multiple myeloma “to be especially careful – to take social distancing seriously and utilize masking – even if they’ve been vaccinated,” said study senior author Nikhil Munshi, MD, director of basic and correlative science at Dana-Farber’s Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center.

The decreased effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with myeloma is likely due to the disease itself and to its treatment, both of which can weaken patients’ immune system, researchers say. As the vaccine spurs the immune system to defend against the coronavirus, a decline in immune function can diminish the vaccine’s efficacy.

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