Authors: Eli Sapir, Noy Moisa, Alon Litvin, Eliran Malki, Daniel Vorobiof, Assuta Ashdod Hospital
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a serious impact on cancer pts management. At the end of December 2020, the US CDC and oncology groups (ASCO, ESMO, ACS) made general vaccine recommendations for cancer pts.
Methods:
HODS 1069 patients, users of Belong.life, a worldwide, free, and voluntary, digital health application, replied during April 2021 to a targeted survey including demographic & clinical questions related to their cancer status, ongoing therapies and the received Covid 19 vaccination details. This survey took place before the Delta variant became globally widespread
Results:
Most pts were North American based (91%), 6.3% from Europe and 2.6% from the rest of the world. 72% were between 50-69 years of age and 79.5% were females. The 5 prevalent diagnoses were Breast Cancer (35.2%), gynecological (14.4%), gastrointestinal (13.3%), lung cancers (9.7%) and genitourinary (7%). 59% of the pts had chemotherapy, 14.2% immunotherapy, 32.8% had radiotherapy during the 12 months prior to receiving the Covid 19 vaccination. mRNA vaccines were given to 82.2% (Pfizer 46.2%, Moderna 36%). 9.45 % of the pts didn’t receive a vaccination (4.86% refused and 4.58% delayed it due to other reasons). 82.3% of the pts had none (39.3%) or mild (43%) side-effects and only 2.4% reported severe side effects, which lasted 1-3 days (89.4%) mainly of sore arm (42.5%), headache (23.3%), fatigue (21.1%), and temperature (18.5%). In 96% there was no delay or stoppage of their therapy and management. 968/1069 pts (90.55%) received the vaccination and 4 (0.41%) developed a Covid 19 infection, while 101/1069 pts (9.45%) were not vaccinated and 9 (8.9%) developed the viral infection. The relative risk (RR) of being infected by Covid19 amongst the nonvaccinated cancer pts is 21.5 larger (95% CI 6.76 to 68.77) than the vaccinated patients (p<0.0001). > <0.0001)
Conclusions:
This is the 1st large report on Real word data voluntarily received from 1069 Belong.life users undergoing anticancer treatment and 90% receiving a Covid 19 vaccination. Most of the pts (97%) did not report any major side effect. In 96% of the pts the ongoing anticancer therapy and clinical management was not stopped or delayed. 968/1069 pts (90.55%) received vaccination and 4 (0.41%) developed a Covid 19 infection, while 101/1069 pts (9.45%) were not vaccinated and 9 (8.9%) developed Covid 19 infection. Analysing the whole cohort, the RR of being infected by Covid 19 amongst the non-vaccinated cancer pts is 21.5 larger (95% CI 6.76 to 68.77) than those vaccinated patients (p<0.0001).
For more info: Covid 19 vaccines in cancer patients (pts), real-world data (RWD) from 1069 Belong.life users
