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. 2023 Jul;35(7):e421-e433.
doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2023.03.006. Epub 2023 Mar 15.

COVID-19 Vaccination Safety Profiles in Patients With Solid Tumour Cancers: A Systematic Review

S L Shear  1 , K Shams  1 , J Weisberg  1 , N Hamidi  1 , S C Scott  2
Affiliations

COVID-19 Vaccination Safety Profiles in Patients With Solid Tumour Cancers: A Systematic Review

S L Shear et al. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Vaccination has become an essential means of protection for solid tumour patients against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this systematic review, we sought to identify common safety profiles of the COVID-19 vaccine in patients with solid tumours. A search of Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane was conducted for studies in English full-text that reported side-effect data experienced by patients with cancer who were at least 12 years old with solid tumours or a recent history of solid tumours after receiving either one or multiple doses of the COVID-19 vaccination. Study quality was assessed with the Newcastle Ottawa Scale criteria. Acceptable study types were retrospective and prospective cohorts, retrospective and prospective observational studies, observational analyses and case series; systematic reviews, meta-analyses and case reports were excluded. Among local/injection site symptoms, the most commonly reported were injection site pain and ipsilateral axillary/clavicular lymphadenopathy, whereas the most commonly reported systemic effects were fatigue/malaise, musculoskeletal symptoms and headache. Most side-effects reported were characterised as mild to moderate. A thorough evaluation of the randomised controlled trials for each featured vaccine led to the conclusion that in the USA and abroad, the safety profile seen in patients with solid tumours is comparable with that seen in the general public.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cancer; safety profile; solid tumour; vaccine.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Severity of side-effects reported by patients who experienced each grade out of the total population (n = 368) from the three studies that recorded data on severity [30,31,39].
Fig 2
Fig 2
Severity of side-effects reported by three studies in terms of the number of occurrences of each grade of that side-effect [6,17,38].
Fig 3
Fig 3
Safety profile reported by three papers in terms of number of times the side-effect was reported, meaning that some side-effects may have occurred more than once in one patient (i.e. after the first and second dose or at different time periods) [6,17,38].
Fig 4
Fig 4
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA): flowchart of search strategy and study selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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