153
Views
1
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Research

Adaptive humoral immune response and cellular immune status in cancer patients and patients under immunosuppression vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2

, ORCID Icon, , , , , , , , ORCID Icon, , & show all
Pages 1683-1689 | Received 16 May 2022, Accepted 18 Aug 2022, Published online: 26 Aug 2022
 

ABSTRACT

Background

Patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases are at higher risk of severe COVID-19. They may not develop protective immune responses following vaccination. We investigated patients’ cellular and humoral immune response after two COVID-19 vaccine doses.

Research design and methods

Subjects were stratified into subgroups according to therapy and grade of immunosuppression at time of vaccination.

Results

Antibody titers were compared to healthy controls. 32/122 (26%) did not develop detectable antibody titers. Of these, 22 (66.6%) had active therapy. Patients showed significant lower antibody titers compared to controls (median 790 vs. 3923 AU/mL, p = 0.026). Patients with active therapy had significant lower antibody titers compared to those without (median 302 vs. 3952 U/L P < 0.001). B-cell count was lower in the group without antibody titers (median 29.97 vs. 152.8; p = 0.002). 100% of patients under anti-CD20 therapy had no detectable antibody titer, followed by anti-TNF (66%), BTK inhibitors (50%), ruxolitinib (35.5%), TKI (14.2%), and lenalidomide (12.5%). Anti-CD20 therapy, ruxolitinib, BTK inhibitors, and anti-CD38 therapy presented significant lower antibody titers compared to controls.

Conclusions

Patients undergoing therapy for cancer or autoimmune diseases are at higher risk of insufficient humoral immune response following COVID-19 vaccination. Furthermore, alterations in the B-cell compartment correlate with lower antibody titers.

Declaration of interests

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

Reviewer disclosures

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

Author contributions

Conception and design: I.A.K., M.K., L.T. and M.B. Investigation: M.B. and I.A.K. were responsible for flow cytometry data, S.S. and S.L. provided data on antibody titers. Statistical analysis: I.A.K. and M.K. Interpretation: All authors. Writing of the initial manuscript: I.A.K., M.K., L.T. and M.B. Review of the first draft: K.B., O.C., J.T.B., M.A., S.S., S.L., K.C., D.K.-M., and F.N. Final approval of manuscript: All authors

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for this work.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access
  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 99.00 Add to cart
* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.