Patients with cancer have no added adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines
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Patients with cancer had few differences in reported adverse events compared with people without cancer after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, according to study results published in JNCCN — Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Additionally, active cancer treatment had little impact on COVID-19 vaccine-associated adverse event profiles, researchers noted.
Rationale
“We were extremely motivated at Fox Chase Cancer Center to get as many of our patients vaccinated as possible as the COVID-19 vaccines became available. We believed — and still do — that the vaccines represent the best chance for our patients with cancer who remain vulnerable to COVID-19 to be protected from serious illness and death,” Eric M. Horwitz, MD, FABS, FASTRO, professor and Gerald E. Hanks, MD, endowed chair in radiation oncology in the department of radiation oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, told Healio.
“We were fortunate to get an early large supply of the vaccines for our patients and we thought that even though they were approved for our patients, the original clinical trials didn’t include a lot of patients with cancer,” he added. “Then and now, both patients and some clinicians were reluctant to get or recommend the vaccines, and we thought our vaccine clinic served as an opportunity to prospectively study how [patients with cancer] tolerate the vaccines.”
Methodology
The prospective, single-institution, observational study included 1,753 patients (67.5% with a history of cancer; 12% receiving active cancer treatment) who received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2, Pfizer) between Feb. 16 and May 15, 2021.
Study participants reported adverse reactions to the first dose of the vaccine during a visit to the clinic for the second dose about 3 weeks later. They completed an identical survey online or via phone 2 weeks after the second dose.
Key findings
Rates of the most commonly reported adverse event among all respondents — local pain at the injection site — did not differ significantly between those with cancer vs. without cancer after the first dose (39.3% vs. 43.9%) or second dose (42.5% vs. 40.3%).
Of note, patients on active cancer treatment reported pain at the injection site less frequently after the first vaccine dose compared with patients not on active treatment (30% vs. 41.4%; P = .002).
“Our patients with cancer, including those on active treatment with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and/or surgery, and those patients who completed treatment had the same effects from the COVID-19 vaccines as [patients without cancer],” Horwitz said.
Implications
“Patients with cancer are not at increased risk for more or different adverse events from the COVID-19 vaccines,” Horwitz added. “These patients should get vaccinated or boosted as soon as they can to protect themselves and others from COVID-19.”
For more information:
Eric M. Horwitz, MD, FABS, FASTRO, can be reached at Fox Chase Cancer Center, 333 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19111; email: eric.horwitz@fccc.edu.
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