By Victoria Forster, PhD; originally published April 29, 2022 One theory is that the Moderna vaccine may be more effective because it contains more mRNA. Source: Getty Images Growing evidence suggests that patients with cancer have better responses to the Moderna...
COVID-19 Vaccines Most Effective in Patients With Myeloma and Gastrointestinal, Lung Cancers
By Jonathan Goodman, MPhil COVID-19 vaccines confer varying levels of protection in patients with cancer, according to research published in The Lancet Oncology. Researchers found that overall vaccine effectiveness was lower in patients with cancer than in the...
Protecting the Immunocompromised From COVID-19: Practical Information for Physicians
By Chase Doyle COVID-19 may have caught the world off guard in 2020, but in the 2 years since the pandemic began, several effective monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs have emerged to protect the most vulnerable patients. The ASCO Post spoke with Gunjan L. Shah,...
Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose May Improve Immune Response in Patients With Lymphoma
New research has found that the weakened immune systems of patients with lymphoma may improve after they receive a third COVID-19 vaccination. Patients with lymphoma have defects in their immune system that restrict its response to vaccination; despite this, a study...
Study Finds Black Patients With Cancer Diagnosed With COVID-19 Have Worse Outcomes Than White Patients
Black patients with cancer experienced significantly worse outcomes after a COVID-19 diagnosis than non-Hispanic White patients, according to findings published by Fu et al in JAMA Network Open. Investigators from the COVID-19 and Cancer...
Polish Preprint: mRNA COVID Vaccine Caused In Vitro Brain Cell Changes “Similar to Those in Cancer Cells”
A Polish research team used a spectroscopy technique called Raman imaging to conduct a preclinical study of the effect of COVID-19 mRNA (Pfizer/BioNT) vaccine on in vitro glial cells of the brain. Lodz University Research Team The team members include Halina...
Risk of COVID-19 Infection and Complications Among Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancers
By Matthew Stenger In a Canadian population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gupta et al found that survivors of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancers were not at a greater risk of COVID-19 infection or severe complications of...
Determinants of Neutralizing Antibody Response After SARS CoV-2 Vaccination in Patients With Myeloma
By Ajay K. Nooka, MD, et al. ABSTRACT PURPOSE Vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) play a critical role in protection from SARS CoV-2. Patients with B-cell malignancies including myeloma are at increased risk of COVID-19–related mortality and exhibit...
T-Cell Responses May Help Predict Protection Against SARS–CoV-2 Infection in Individuals With and Without Cancer
T-cell responses directed against the receptor-binding domain of the SARS–CoV-2 spike protein were associated with protection from SARS–CoV-2 infection in vaccinated individuals with or without cancer, with lower T-cell responses observed in patients with blood...
Study Finds Patients With Lung Cancer Demonstrated Psychological Resilience in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Far from being hobbled by fears of COVID-19, patients with lung cancer actually showed less depression and anxiety during the pandemic than their healthy peers, according to results from a new study by Arrato et al published in JNCCN–Journal of the National...
Adverse Event Rates After Two Doses of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Patients With vs Without Cancer
New research published by Shulman et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network confirmed that mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 are just as safe for people with cancer as they are for cancer-free individuals. Researchers from a single institution...
First patients of pioneering CAR T-cell therapy ‘cured of cancer’
Cancer-killing cells still present 10 years on, with results suggesting therapy is a cure for certain blood cancers By Linda Geddes Two of the first human patients to be treated with a revolutionary therapy that engineers immune cells to target specific types of...
Immunogenicity of COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine Booster in Patients With Cancer Receiving Active Treatment
By Matthew Stenger In an Israeli single-institution study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ligumsky et al found that a booster dose of the SARS–CoV-2 Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine given in August or September 2021 was immunogenic in patients receiving...
Fully Vaxxed Cancer Patients Face Sky-High Risk for Hospitalization & High Risk for Death
Recently, oncologists from a network of oncology center-based care and research centers including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Vanderbilt University, and others report that people with cancer who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 still face...
COVID-19 Vaccination and Breakthrough Infections in Patients with Cancer
By A.L.Schmidt Highlights • Patients with cancer who develop breakthrough COVID-19 following full vaccination remain susceptible to severe outcomes. •Hematologic malignancies are over-represented among vaccinated patients with cancer who develop breakthrough COVID-19....