Vaccines induce antibodies despite cancer, immunocompromise

Reuters - 08/09/2021 - The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines trigger protective immune responses in most cancer patients with solid tumors and in many people taking immunosuppressive medications, two small studies suggest.

In Israel, researchers found that six months after the second dose of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, 79% of 154 patients with solid tumors had developed antibodies, as had 84% of 135 similar people without cancer, a difference that was not deemed statistically significant.

Antibody levels were similar in the two groups, the researchers reported in Cancer Discovery https://bit.ly/3jGAccu.

Separately, U.S. researchers studied 133 adults taking immunosuppressive medications for chronic inflammatory diseases and 53 healthy volunteers.

At three weeks after the second shot of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna Inc, nearly 90% of the immunosuppressed participants had developed antibodies, although many had lower responses compared to the control group, according to a report published in Annals of Internal Medicine https://bit.ly/3yEMOVy.

SOURCES: https://bit.ly/3jGAccu Cancer Discover, online September 2, 2021, and https://bit.ly/3yEMOVy Annals of Internal Medicine, online August 31, 2021.

By Reuters Staff



Posted on 8 September 202114 September 2021