CORONAVIRUS STUDY | Cancer patients need to be vaccinated to reduce the risk of death from Covid, experts say

A study of nearly 200,000 people with cancer found that effectiveness of Covid vaccines in this group of patients, while checking that they are at greater risk of complications and death from coronavirus if they are not immunized. This is the result of an investigation published in the magazine. Natural communicationswhich was led by the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, and the Jordi Gol Research Institute for Primary Health Care (IDIAPJGol).

Cancer patients have a higher risk of dying from this infectious disease, especially those with lung cancer, hematologic malignancies, or undergoing systemic treatment such as chemotherapy. Although the participation of patients with active cancer in clinical trials testing the effectiveness of Covid vaccines has so far been limited and it has not been possible to accurately understand the effectiveness of immunization for this risk group, data from prospective studies obtained from a number of studies show that cancer patients they may produce fewer protective antibodies against the covid virus than the population as a whole.

How did they develop this?

A study published this Wednesday confirms these results based on an analysis of data obtained from clinical records. In particular, the researchers analyzed data from 185,000 patients with neoplasms included in the Information System for the Development of Research in Primary Health Care (SIDIAP), a database including people receiving treatment at the first level of health care in Catalonia.

Half of them, just over 92,000 people, received at least first full immunization (two vaccine shots), and the other half were not vaccinated at the time of work. The researchers compared data on mortality and serious complications caused by disease in the immunized group after receiving the first and second dose of the vaccine with persons in the unvaccinated group.

They then compared the results of members of the experimental group after receiving a booster dose of the vaccine (more than 54,000 patients) with an equivalent sample of people in the control group who received only the first two shots. The study finds that the death rate and serious complications among cancer patients not vaccinated against Covid-19 are twice as high as those who received a full first dose.

However, this difference is smaller than that observed between general population immunized against SARS-CoV-2 and non-immunized population. “This work allows us to better understand the impact of vaccination on cancer patients and helps develop public health policies to protect vulnerable populations,” concluded ISGlobal researcher Otavio Ranzani, who led the study along with Talita Duarte-Salles of IDIAPJGol.