Real-world vaccination status of children with hematologic tumors before and after chemotherapy

ABSTRACT

Background

There is a high incidence and mortality rate in children with hematologic tumors (CHT), who are more prone to various infectious diseases. This study aims to clarify the real-world National Immunization Program (NIP) vaccination status of CHT before and after chemotherapy.

Methods

Medical records, NIP vaccination data, and the Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) of CHT who were admitted to the Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, from 1 January 2011 to 1 December 2021 were completely collected.

Results

A total of 2,874 CHT were included, and 1975 (68.7%) had vaccination records. Among the enrolled patients, the vaccination rate of all NIP vaccines was lower than 90% before diagnosis. Only 24.29% of CHT (410/1688) resumed vaccination after chemotherapy, and 69.02% (283/410) resumed vaccination more than 12 months after chemotherapy. No uncommon or serious side effects were reported.

Conclusion

The vaccination rate of CHT after chemotherapy was lower than that before the disease was diagnosed. It is necessary to provide more evidence-based support and formulate specific regimens to perfect the vaccination procedure after chemotherapy so as to improve the quality of life of CHT.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• hematologic tumors
• vaccination
• immunization status
• safety

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Authors’ contributions

The contributions of the authors are as follows: Formal analysis, Yuyang Xu and Chai Ji; Investigation, Heping Shen, and Minyan Li; Methodology, Yuyang Xu and Yan Liu; Project administration, Yan Liu; Software, Yuyang Xu; Validation, Xuechao Zhang; Writing – original draft, Chai Ji and Yuyang Xu; Writing – review & editing, Chai Ji and Yuyang Xu.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Ethical approval

The procedures and protocols of this study were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Children’s Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine. The Informed Consent was waived by the Ethics Committee of the Children’s Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine (2018-IRB-105)

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Zhejiang Provincial Basic Public Welfare Research Projects (grant number: LGF22H260013) and the Medical Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (grant number: 2021ky185)