key: cord-0928560-n2wmlgri
authors: Nierengarten, Mary Beth
title: Ongoing research examines COVID‐19 vaccination effectiveness in patients with cancer and survivors
date: 2021-08-23
journal: Cancer
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.33864
sha: 228f6dd72f3b019a09643253f1a904f881949183
doc_id: 928560
cord_uid: n2wmlgri

nan

Cancer Center (OSUCCC-James) are gathering information on the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on, and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in, immunocompromised patients with cancer and cancer survivors.

"While we are not seeing these patients coming for medical care with breakthrough COVID-19 infections, there are many questions about the prevalence of asymptomatic infections, how long immunity will last, if their immunity decays more quickly than the general population, and if they will start developing symptomatic infections," says Peter G. Shields, MD, the Julius F. Stone Chair in Cancer Research at OSUCCC-James and a coprincipal investigator of the study.

To answer these questions, the Study of Infections and Immune REspoNse (SIREN) study will examine how infection susceptibility and immunity change in patients with cancer on the basis of their stage of disease, and then it will compare this with a cohort of healthy volunteers. The aim is to enroll 450 patients with cancer and 100 healthy volunteers, all of whom will be at least 18 years old and have received 1 of the messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccines.

During the year-long study, all participants will be tested weekly for COVID-19 infections with a polymerase chain reaction test and will be measured for signs of immune responses based on blood samples, both of which will be mailed in. In addition, participants will provide self-reported information by completing periodic questionnaires about the vaccine that they have received, any associated symptoms, and any potential exposures to COVID-19.

Dr. Shields says that he and his colleagues hope to learn whether there are symptomatic or asymptomatic infections in the patients with cancer who are part of the study, what their immune profile response to vaccination is and how it changes over time, and what immune markers may indicate a changing immune profile.

Researchers hope that the results will help to fill the gap in the current understanding of how cancer treatments affect the efficacy of the COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccines because patients with cancer and survivors were not included in the vaccine trials.

Dr. Shields says that the findings will also extend to other patients who have compromised immune systems because many drugs that are used to treat cancer are used to treat other diseases. "Our data will look at specific immune markers that might be applicable to them for assessing immune response," he says. "When smokers who were interested in cigarette reduction were provided with an ENDS with cigarette-like nicotine delivery, they were able to reduce their smoking and achieve significant decreases in tobacco-related toxicants," says the study's lead author Caroline O. Cobb, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Although a number of randomized trials have shown an association between smoking reduction or cessation and decreases in exhaled carbon monoxide with ENDSs, few studies have looked at the different concentrations of nicotine delivered through an ENDS.

The study fills in some gaps by examining the effects of a range of ENDS nicotine delivery profiles and comparing them with a non-ENDS product. "This study adds to others regarding the role of ENDSs for harm reduction among cigarette smokers," says Dr. Cobb. "In the short term it supports limited safety concerns for the use of these specific ENDSs/liquids in combination with cigarette smoking. The long-term effects of ENDS products, however, are still uncertain."

Effect of an electronic nicotine delivery system with 0, 8, or 36 mg/mL liquid nicotine versus a cigarette substitute on tobacco-related toxicant exposure: a four-arm, parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial