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. 2021 May 31;14(1):86.
doi: 10.1186/s13045-021-01099-x.

Low titers of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies after first vaccination dose in cancer patients receiving checkpoint inhibitors

Evangelos Terpos  1 , Flora Zagouri  2 , Michalis Liontos  2 , Aimilia D Sklirou  3 , Konstantinos Koutsoukos  2 , Christos Markellos  2 , Alexandros Briasoulis  2 , Eleni-Dimitra Papanagnou  3 , Ioannis P Trougakos  3 , Meletios-Athanasios Dimopoulos  2
Affiliations

Low titers of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies after first vaccination dose in cancer patients receiving checkpoint inhibitors

Evangelos Terpos et al. J Hematol Oncol. .

Abstract

Vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 provides significant protection against the infection in the general population. However, only limited data exist for patients with cancer under systemic therapy. Based on this, our site has initiated a study evaluating safety and efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with solid and hematological malignancies under several systemic therapies. The initial results of the cohort of 59 patients receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors are presented here. Despite no new safety issues have been noticed, the levels of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies are significantly lower in comparison to matched healthy volunteers up to day 22 post the first dose. These results should be taken into consideration for the patients under treatment.

Keywords: AZD1222; BNT162b2; Cancer; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Kinetics of neutralizing antibodies in patients receiving immunotherapy and matched controls after vaccination with the first dose of the BNT162b2, mRNA-1273 and AZD1222 vaccine. On D22, patients had lower production of NAb inhibition titers compared to controls of similar age and gender (see text). Only 6 patients (10.7%) had NAb titers of equal or more than 50%
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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