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BioMed Central, Cell and Bioscience, 1(11), 2021

DOI: 10.1186/s13578-021-00713-2

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Impaired neutralizing antibody response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in cancer patients

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractThere is currently a critical need to determine the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for immunocompromised patients. In this study, we determined the neutralizing antibody response in 160 cancer patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), lung cancer, breast cancer, and various non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL), after they received two doses of mRNA vaccines. Serum from 46 mRNA vaccinated health care workers (HCWs) served as healthy controls. We discovered that (1) cancer patients exhibited reduced neutralizing antibody titer (NT50) compared to HCWs; (2) CLL and NHL patients exhibited the lowest NT50 levels, with 50-60% of them below the detection limit; (3) mean NT50 levels in patients with CLL and NHL was ~2.6 fold lower than those with solid tumors; and (4) cancer patients who received anti-B cell therapy exhibited significantly reduced NT50 levels. Our results demonstrate an urgent need for novel immunization strategies for cancer patients against SARS-CoV-2, particularly those with hematological cancers and those on anti-B cell therapies.