Tag Archive for: COVID vaccine

Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe and Effective for People With Colon Cancer?

Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe and Effective for People With Colon Cancer? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Smitha Krishnamurthi, a colon cancer specialist at Cleveland Clinic, provides vaccine safety information and discusses the effective immune response after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with colon cancer.

Dr. Smitha Krishnamurthi is a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Learn more about Dr. Krishnamurthi here.

See More From The Pro-Active Colon Cancer Patient Toolkit


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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Is the COVID vaccine safe and effective for people with colon cancer?

Dr. Krishnamurthi:

Yes. The COVID vaccine is safe. We have no data that patients with colorectal cancer or patients who are undergoing chemotherapy are at any increased risk of any side effects from the vaccine. People should be able to make a good immune response. Patients who are not able to make a good immune response are those who are getting very high-dose chemotherapy, like a bone marrow transplant or an organ transplant. But chemotherapy for colorectal cancer should not be problem. We basically advise – I ask all my patients to get the vaccine. They should just get it whenever they can. They don’t have to worry about timing in regards to their chemotherapy.

Katherine Banwell:

Okay. Dr. Krishnamurthi, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr. Krishnamurthi:

Katherine, thank you so much for having me. It’s been such a pleasure.

Is COVID-19 Vaccination Safe and Effective for DLBCL Patients?

Is COVID-19 Vaccination Safe and Effective for DLBCL Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Is COVID-19 vaccination safe and effective for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients? Dr. Jean Koff shares what’s currently known about COVID-19 vaccination for DLBCL patients and provides information about studies currently underway on immunocompromised patients.

Dr. Jean Koff is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. Learn more about Dr. Koff, here.

See More From The Pro-Active DLBCL Patient Toolkit


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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

A question that’s on many people’s minds right now is if the COVID 19 vaccination is safe and effective for people with DLBCL? 

Dr. Koff:

So, I don’t think we have any reason to believe that it’s not safe. We haven’t seen any signals that it is not safe. I think there are reasonable concerns that for patients who either have active lymphoma where the lymphoma may be impacting their immune system and the immune system’s ability to mount the response that you need to get immunity when you get vaccinated. But even more so patients who are receiving some sort of therapy, especially chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Those types of treatments actually may knock out the same normal bystander immune cells that help you mount that immune response when you get vaccinated.   

And so, the concern there is that in those individuals either with active DLBCL or who are receiving treatment for DLBCL, that their immune systems might be somewhat compromised and not able to mount as robust of an immune response when they get vaccinated. 

And by extension, the vaccine may not work as well to protect them against COVID as it would in somebody who doesn’t have a compromised immune system. But what I’m counseling my patients is that if they are not actively receiving treatment that impacts their immune system like chemo or immunotherapy, I am recommending that they go ahead and get the vaccine.  Because to me the risk of COVID and COVID-related complications is very high. And the risk of complications from the vaccination is very low. And the protection that it offers – while we are not sure the level of protection that it offers in these special cases, some protection, if it does offer it is better than no protection. And the risk of immunization is low. We are actually doing the studies now at Emory.  

In specifically lymphoma patients who get the COVID vaccine. Whether they have active lymphoma or getting treatment in lymphoma, we’re doing the studies now to take a look and see whether they’re able to adequately mount immune responses to the COVID vaccine. So, that we can better counsel our patients on how effective these vaccines will be.   

So, once we have more mature data from our studies and from other centers, similar studies, we’ll be able to better estimate what the chances that the vaccine will be protective for an individual patient.

Is the COVID Vaccine Effective for CLL Patients?

Is the COVID Vaccine Effective for CLL Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Is the COVID vaccine effective for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients? Dr. Paul Barr shares insight about mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in CLL patients – both for those in remission and those in active treatment.

Dr. Paul Barr is Professor of Hematology/Oncology at University of Rochester Medical Center. Learn more about Dr. Barr, here.

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An Expert’s Perspective on CLL Research Advances

Transcript:

Katherine:

I understand that researchers have been looking into whether the COVID vaccination is as effective in people with CLL. What can you tell us about that? The research?

Dr. Barr:

Sure. Everyone knew this was going to be an important question. We’ve known for a long time that riff CLL responses to vaccines in general aren’t as good as some of the normal population. So, there’ve been a whole host of studies over the years where patients didn’t quite respond as well to flu vaccines or pneumonia vaccines. Nonetheless, we typically recommend standard vaccinations, because there’s can be some degree of response. And our testing isn’t always perfect in terms of how well vaccines work.

So, when it typically, is felt to be a relatively safe procedure, is something we typically recommend.

More recently, we looked at studies on the shingles vaccine, and actually that works better than perhaps the flu shot, for example. Because patients probably were previously exposed to that virus earlier in life when they get vaccinated. So, recall response, which is a little bit easier for the immune system.

So, that brings us up to the COVID vaccines, which is obviously critically important ever on everyone’s mind. And the data’s still early. But what we’ve learned so, far is that, like what we might have predicted, our patients, the CLL patients don’t respond as well to the mRNA-based COVID vaccines.

So, in the media we saw, in the larger 20- and 40,000 patients studies that maybe, 95 percent of patients didn’t experience infection. It looks like in the general population, those vaccines work very well. In a cohort of 160, some CLL patients who are vaccinated early on in Israel, it looked like maybe about 40 percent of patients responded.

For the patients who hadn’t previously been treated but had measurable CLL, maybe about half of patients responded adequately in terms of generating antibodies. So, kind of a flip of a coin. For patients who have been treated and were in remission for more than a year, we’ll say the responses were better, maybe 80 percent or so.

For patients who are on active treatment, even our novel treatments, like the BTK inhibitors or venetoclax (Venclexta), the BCL-2 inhibitor, the responses were pretty poor, 18 or so percent.

So, you can see for patients with active disease, their responses are impaired. For those that are in remission, a little better. For those who are on active treatment, the antibody responses aren’t very good. So, I honestly think this is important information, but tell patients, don’t lose hope.

It’s still important to take the precautions. Some degree of wearing masks and social distancing. They will be better protected if their friends and family around them are vaccinated, and they still may respond to some degree. It’s not like the vaccines aren’t working at all. It’s just that the responses aren’t quite as good as the general population. So, again, another long-winded answer, but hopefully that helps patients understand some of the limitations in vaccinations.

But also that generally things are getting safer in that they still can venture out in society, but still have to take some precautions.