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Apr 20, 2021
Study finds that the vaccine is much less effective in leukemia patients, but the research is helping determine the best time to vaccinate.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
A study by researchers at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center and released over the weekend has revealed that coronavirus vaccines are much less effective than expected for people being treated for leukemia, but the data collected is helping to determine the optimum time to vaccinate.
It is known that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have an increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease and mortality The study sought to determine the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine when given to these patients.
email article
Fewer than 40% of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) had an adequate immune response to two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a prospective study showed.
Overall, 39.5% of 167 patients with CLL had adequate antibody levels after the second vaccine dose. A matched comparison of a subgroup of patients with CLL and a group of healthy individuals showed that half of the patients with leukemia responded to the vaccine as compared with all of the healthy controls.
Vaccine response rates in the patients with CLL ranged from 79.2% for those who had a clinical remission after antileukemic therapy to 16% for patients who were vaccinated during treatment. Patients who had yet to be treated had an antibody response rate of 55.2%, reported Yair Herishanu, MD, of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, and colleagues in