Healio: Patients with cancer achieve response to messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine

A high percentage of patients undergoing treatment for cancer achieved a sufficient antibody response to the BNT162b2 messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine, according to study results published in JAMA Oncology. Researchers found that at 13 to 54 days after the second vaccine dose, 90% of patients with cancer (n = 92 of 102) and 100% of healthy controls were seropositive for COVID-19 antispike IgG antibodies. Patients with cancer had a significantly lower median IgG titer than controls (1,931 AU/mL vs. 7,160 AU/mL; P < .001). Results of a multivariable analysis showed treatment with chemotherapy plus immunotherapy was the only variable significantly associated with lower IgG titers (beta, 3.5; 95% CI, 5.6 to 1.5). The results add to the multi-country perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic, which will be especially important considering variations in vaccine availability, schedules and practices across countries, according to an accompanying editorial by Lova Sun, MD, and Ravi B. Parikh, MD, MPP, both researchers at Perelman School of Medicine of University of Pennsylvania, and Jeremy L. Warner, MD, MS, researcher at Vanderbilt University. Read more at Healio.