Immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants after two and three doses of vaccine in B-cell malignancies: UK PROSECO study

Journal article

Patients with hematological malignancies are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes due to compromised immune responses, but the insights of these studies have been compromised due to intrinsic limitations in study design. Here we present the PROSECO prospective observational study ( NCT04858568 ) on 457 patients with lymphoma that received two or three COVID-19 vaccine doses. We show undetectable humoral responses following two vaccine doses in 52% of patients undergoing active anticancer treatment. Moreover, 60% of patients on anti-CD20 therapy had undetectable antibodies following full vaccination within 12 months of receiving their anticancer therapy. However, 70% of individuals with indolent B-cell lymphoma displayed improved antibody responses following booster vaccination. Notably, 63% of all patients displayed antigen-specific T-cell responses, which increased after a third dose irrespective of their cancer treatment status. Our results emphasize the urgency of careful monitoring of COVID-19-specific immune responses to guide vaccination schemes in these vulnerable populations.

Authors: Lim, SH; Stuart, B; Joseph-Pietras, D; Johnson, M; Campbell, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Cancer
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 552-564
• Publication date: 2022-03-24
• DOI: 10.1038/s43018-022-00364-3
• EISSN: 2662-1347
• ISSN: 2662-1347
• Language: English
• Keywords: Antigen; Immune system; Antibody; Immunology; CD20; Vaccination; Lymphoma; Medicine