They recommend increasing COVID-19 vaccination for people with cancer.

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the La Caixa Foundation, and the Jordi Gol Research Institute for Primary Health Care (IDIAPJGol) conducted the study. which recommends giving extra doses of the vaccine to people with cancer to boost their immunity.They announced this in a statement this Wednesday.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, studied the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine in 184,744 cancer patients included in the database of the information system for the development of research in primary health care Sidiap.

Half of the patients analyzed (92,372) had received their first full immunization, consisting of two vaccine shots, while the other half had not been vaccinated at the time of the study.

Cancer patients are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19especially those with lung cancer, hematologic malignancies, or undergoing systemic treatments such as chemotherapy.

MORTALITY

The results show that the mortality and complication rates among cancer patients not vaccinated against coronavirus are double the rate among those who received the full first dose.

ISGlobal researcher Otavio Ranzani said the results “clearly demonstrate that vaccination against COVID-19 significantly reduces mortality and serious complications among cancer patientsespecially those who received a booster dose.

TO PROTECT VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

Previous studies have warned that cancer patients may develop fewer protective antibodies to the virus than the general population, and this work, “the most comprehensive yet undertaken on the subject,” confirmed these findings.

IDIAPJGol researcher Talita Duarte-Salles explained that “this work provides Important information to understand the impact of COVID-19 vaccination” among this vulnerable population and helps develop public health policies that protect them.