COVID-19 vaccination and low cervical lymphadenopathy in the two week neck lump clinic - a follow up audit

Abstract

The UK COVID vaccination programme has progressed at an astonishing rate since the first patients received their doses in December 2020. It is well known that other vaccines including influenza and human papilloma virus (HPV) can result in reactive lymphadenopathy in the axilla and/or neck. Patients are now presenting via the two week wait neck lump clinic with supraclavicular fossa and low neck lymphadenopathy related to COVID vaccination, and to similar one stop breast clinics with axillary lymph nodes. In an audit of 80 patients seen over a period of one month, we found COVID vaccine-related low neck lymphadenopathy in four cases (5%), with an additional rectal cancer patient thought to have metastatic disease who presented with a Virchow type node. COVID vaccine-related lymphadenopathy should be considered in the differential diagnosis of low-neck nodes if they occurred shortly after vaccination, but it is important to exclude sinister disease using ultrasound and other investigations as necessary.