COVID-19 vaccination in patients with cancer, a rapid review.

Laudy Chehade,Richard Sullivan,Karen Canfell,Mieke Van Hemelrijck,Deborah Mukherji,Sheeba Irshad,Jad Zeitoun,Dorothy Lombe

doi:10.3332/ecancer.2022.1355

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine development and administration have become global priorities since the beginning of the pandemic, particularly for special populations at higher risk of complications and mortality, such as patients with haematologic and solid organ malignancies. This review aims to summarise the current data for COVID-19 vaccine efficacy in patients with cancer, suggest priority areas for future research and look at potential disparities at a global level. Although patients diagnosed with or receiving therapy for cancer were excluded from the initial vaccine trials, emerging evidence now supports vaccine safety with potentially diminished immune response in this group. Several studies that evaluated antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination found that patients with solid malignancies had lower serologic response rates compared to healthy controls, but better than patients with haematologic malignancies, who had the lowest seroconversion rates and antibody titres. As anticipated, poor serologic responses have been particularly observed among patients receiving B-cell depleting therapies. The data on cellular response are scarce and conflicting since not all studies have showed a difference between patients with malignancies and healthy subjects. Several questions concerning vaccination remain unanswered and require further exploration, such as response duration, need for response monitoring and rates of breakthrough infections.

Highlights

Since the coronavirus disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, vaccine development and administration became a global priority
Patients diagnosed with a haematologic or solid organ malignancy are among the populations who are at greatest risk of death or severe complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) [7,8,9,10]
Interim results from the SarsCoV-2 for Cancer Patients (SOAP-02) study which compared the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 among solid cancer patients, haematological cancer patients, and healthy controls showed that only 38% of patients with solid tumours and

Summary

Introduction

Since the coronavirus disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, vaccine development and administration became a global priority. Patients diagnosed with a haematologic or solid organ malignancy are among the populations who are at greatest risk of death or severe complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) [7,8,9,10]. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the current data for COVID19-vaccine efficacy and safety in patients with cancer, suggest priority areas for future research and look at potential disparities at a global level

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Results

Conclusion