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Patients being treated for cancer produce antibodies after a first shot with the corona vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech. But after a second injection, the antibodies did not increase in all patients. Chemotherapy in particular appears to inhibit the immune response. The first results of a study by UZ Antwerp and Sciensano show this.
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Patients being treated for cancer are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill during a Covid-19 infection. The clinical studies conducted worldwide into the efficacy of the new corona vaccines did not include patients who were currently being treated for cancer.
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Due to their illness and their treatment, the immune system of those patients is put under pressure, which often weakens it. Researchers from UZ Antwerp (UZA) wanted to find out whether the vaccines are equally effective in the case of reduced immunity. In addition, it was studied whether cancer patients run a higher risk of (serious) side effects of the vaccines.
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Vaccine side effects in patients undergoing cancer treatment are fully in line with reports from healthy individuals.
Marc Peeters
Head of oncology UZA
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Blood draws were taken before and at various times after vaccination. The study was conducted at UZA in collaboration with the health institute Sciensano, with the support of the Federal Knowledge Center for Healthcare (KCE) and the University of Antwerp.
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Professor Marc Peeters, head of the oncology department: ‘The results of the study indicate in the first place that the vaccine side effects in patients undergoing cancer treatment are completely in line with the reports by healthy people.’
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Antibodies
‘As far as the immune response is concerned, we see that the amount of antibodies produced in some patients is less than in healthy people after two doses of the vaccine. Antibodies are produced in most patients after the first injection, but do not increase in all groups of patients after the second injection.’
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Cancer patients may benefit from a third vaccine dose.
Mieke Goossens
Researcher Sciensano
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There are clear differences between patients depending on the therapy. Almost all patients undergoing hormone therapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapy have normal production of antibodies.
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chemotherapy
However, the researchers only saw a normal antibody response in just over half of the patients on chemotherapy and even in as little as a third of patients with blood cancers. ‘Cancer patients may benefit from a third vaccine dose’, says Sciensano researcher Mieke Goossens.
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There are other factors that determine the extent to which we are protected against viral infections, such as cellular immunity. That aspect of immunity is being further investigated in the Antwerp study.
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