People Receiving Cancer Treatment Benefit From Extra COVID-19 Boosters
Published on September 7, 2023
Even though most of the world has dropped COVID-19 precautions, the threat of severe COVID-19 infection is very real for people who are immunocompromised, including people receiving cancer treatments.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says immunocompromised people can get COVID-19 vaccine boosters as needed, so it’s not really clear when getting the boosters would be most effective.
Now a study suggests the timing of extra vaccine boosters depends on the treatments a person is receiving.
The research was published on Aug. 21, 2023, by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Read “Infection with alternative frequencies of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine boosting for patients undergoing antineoplastic cancer treatments.”
Antineoplastic cancer treatments are chemotherapy medicines, including Taxol (chemical name: paclitaxel), Adriamycin (chemical name: doxorubicin), and 5-fluorouracil.
About the study
The researchers looked at the COVID-19 antibody levels of various groups of people after they received the bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine:
people never diagnosed with cancer
people diagnosed with cancer but not receiving treatment
people receiving targeted therapy for cancer
people receiving hormonal therapy for cancer
people receiving stem cell transplantation therapy for cancer
people receiving immunotherapy for cancer
people receiving chemotherapy for cancer
people receiving both immunotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer
people receiving Rituxan (chemical name: rituximab) for cancer; Rituxan is used to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, certain types of leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases, but is not approved to treat breast cancer
The researchers used the antibody levels to estimate the likelihood that these groups of people would be infected with COVID-19 over a two-year period if they received vaccine boosters every:
one month
three months
six months
one year
two years
People receiving targeted therapy, hormonal therapy, immunotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or stem cell therapy who got a COVID-19 vaccine booster every year had about the same risk of COVID-19 infection as people who’ve never been diagnosed with cancer, about 12%.
For people receiving chemotherapy alone, the risk of COVID-19 infection was higher:
18% would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every year
8% would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every six months
3% would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every three months
For people with cancer receiving no treatment, the risk was even higher:
22% would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every year
11% would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every six months
6% would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every three months
The risk was highest for people receiving Rituxan: 18% would be infected with COVID-19, even if they received monthly boosters. The researchers predicted that nearly two of every five people receiving Rituxan would be infected with COVID-19 if they received a booster every year.
“It turns out that most cancer patients are protected nearly as well as the non-cancer population by COVID-19 boosting,” lead author Jeffrey Townsend, PhD, said in a statement. Dr. Townsend is professor of public health at Yale University. “But there is a big exception.”
“Some cancer therapies directly attack immune cells,” added co-leader Alex Dornburg, PhD, assistant professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “This is great for battling blood cancers such as some lymphomas, but the death of immune cells also opens a window not only for COVID-19 infection, but for severe infection.”
What this means for you
If you’re receiving treatments other than chemotherapy alone for breast cancer, this study suggests that having an annual COVID-19 vaccine booster makes your COVID-19 risk about the same as someone who hasn’t been diagnosed with cancer.
But if you’re receiving only chemotherapy, the results suggest that receiving a booster every three or six months would likely benefit you more.
Still, every person’s situation is unique. You have may other health conditions or allergies that affect your ability to have a COVID-19 vaccine. It makes sense to talk to your doctor about the breast cancer treatments you’re receiving and your risk of COVID-19 infection to develop a vaccine booster plan that’s best for you.