medwireNews: People with cancer could benefit from a booster dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech (BNT162b2) SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, suggest data from Israel.
As reported in a research letter to JAMA Oncology, all but one of the 37 patients with solid cancer (median age, 67 years) who received a third dose of the vaccine tested positive for the presence of anti-Spike antibodies at a median of 13 days after administration of the booster.
And “nearly all patients had excellent [antibody] levels,” regardless of whether they were receiving chemotherapy (51%) or not (49%), report Albert Grinshpun (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA) and colleagues.
“These results align with other recent findings showing swift, substantial response in comparable booster-dosed populations (eg, solid organ transplant recipients),” they write.
The team notes that the findings “highlight the superiority of serial vaccinations over single dose among patients with solid cancers,” and concludes that “reduced rates of confirmed COVID-19 and severe illness among older adults in Israel following the BNT162b2 vaccine booster, combined with the immunogenic response found in this study, underscore the potential important role of booster doses in mitigating the risk of infection during the emergence of viral variants.”
medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare Ltd. © 2021 Springer Healthcare Ltd, part of the Springer Nature Group
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