COVID-19 Vaccination Protects Blood Cancer Patients

People suffering from blood cancer often have a weak immune system, putting them at higher risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19. Some cancer therapies, moreover, result in these patients forming few or no antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 after COVID-19 vaccination.

Researchers have now characterized in detail several months of the immune response of patients with blood cancer who had received a total of three vaccinations against COVID-19.

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‘COVID-19 vaccination can generate very broad antiviral immunity in patients with various types of blood cancer.’

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The results published in Nature Cancer allow inferences to be made about the protection that vaccination gives these patients against serious illnesses from SARS-CoV2.

Strong T cell response to COVID-19 vaccination

The study focused on patients with two kinds of blood cancer: B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. This could be one reason why breakthrough infections turned out to be mild to moderately severe even in study participants who had been unable to form any specific antibodies after vaccination because of their therapy.

This depends particularly on the strength of the bonds between antibodies and the viral spike protein. In addition, the ability of antibodies to neutralize different SARS-CoV-2 variants in cell cultures plays a major role.

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As the next step, therefore, the scientists compared the quantity and quality of antibodies and T cell responses to the spike protein among blood cancer patients and healthy study participants after two and three COVID-19 vaccinations.

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The study revealed that patients who can form antibodies tend to produce antibodies of particularly high quality. After their second vaccination, they are already able to neutralize and thus deactivate different SARS-CoV-2 variants.

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This ability is considerably more pronounced in this patient cohort than in vaccinated healthy people. It includes highly potent neutralizing antibodies.

Consequently, multiple vaccine doses can be recommended for patients with B-cell lymphoma or multiple myeloma without interrupting therapy.

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Source-Eurekalert