For many, the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic seems over. However, for patients whose immune systems are compromised by cancer or by cancer therapies, fear of COVID-19 infection and severe disease remains very real.
Currently, CDC guidance recommends that immunocompromised patients receive COVID-19 booster shots “as needed.” While this flexibility is useful for patients with complex medical conditions, more specific guidance is lacking as to when additional COVID-19 boosting would be most effective.
New research led by scientists the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Yale University provides this critically needed information. The rate at which additional COVID-19 boosters are needed for cancer patients, the researchers say, depends on the treatment they are receiving.
“Some cancer therapies directly attack immune cells,” said the study’s co-leader Alex Dornburg, an assistant professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “This is great for battling blood cancers such as some lymphomas, but the death of immune cells also opens a window not only for COVID-19 infection but for severe infection.”
Read more at Inside UNC Charlotte.