COVID Vaccines and Boosters for Cancer Patients: What You Need to Know
As challenging as it has been to keep on top of shifting recommendations about COVID vaccines and boosters, cancer patients and their caregivers do not have a choice. Having a pre-existing condition and being immunocompromised puts people at greater risk for both catching COVID and suffering from more severe infections.
There has been a lot of media coverage and discussion about the importance of a booster shot, but less information has circulated about changing recommendations for the almost seven million adult Americans who are immunocompromised, roughly 2.7% of the adult population.
If you wonder if you are among those seven million Americans, here is some criteria used to determine contributing factors to having a compromised immune system:
Patients treated for blood cancers currently, or within the past six months
Patients within 12 months of having been treated with B-cell depleting chemotherapies
Any patient who went through a stem cell transplant within the past two years
Patients being treated for solid tumors currently, or within the past six months
Patients currently on a regimen of high dose corticosteroids.
As of August 2021, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended that those people who are immunocompromised, including many patients being treated for cancer as detailed above, should receive three, not two, doses of the mRNA vaccine (either the Pfizer/BioNTech or the Moderna), and a fourth dose, or booster, is also encouraged.
The third dose should be administered at least 28 days after the second dose and the booster administered 5 months after the third dose. The extra dose of vaccines encouraged for those who are immunocompromised was recommended for a number of reasons:
People with compromised immune systems are more likely to experience severe illness from a COVID infection
The immunocompromised are more likely to transmit the virus
They are more likely to have breakthrough infections after only two doses of a vaccine
The immunocompromised have lower vaccine effectiveness overall
There are lower rates of antibodies among the immunocompromised than among the non-immunocompromised.
That is a lot to keep straight! If you are feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. The best course of action about when, if, or how to get a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot is to discuss it with your treatment team and primary care provider. “As a physician who treats cancer patients, I understand the unique risk my patients live with daily. Treatments for cancer can be extremely hard on the immune system, making day-to-day life risker for my patients. With COVID, their risk is even greater. Patients should absolutely talk with their doctor about any questions on vaccines or boosters and how to best protect themselves,” says Dr. Srilata Gundala, a hematologist/oncologist and founder of Hope & Healing Care Center in Hinsdale, Illinois.
If you are a cancer patient currently, or have been in treatment in the recent past, or are caring for someone with cancer, being fully vaccinated is one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself and those around you. And, once vaccinated and boosted, experts recommend cancer patients continue to take other COVID related precautions. That means masking up in public spaces, keeping six feet apart from others, avoiding crowds and indoor spaces, and encouraging all those close to you to get vaccinated themselves.
Researchers are still learning about the impact of COVID vaccines on cancer patients, but as the pandemic continues and vaccines have been widely available for over a year, more data exists that helps to provide much needed answers and guidance.
You can learn more about COVID vaccines for cancer patients HERE.
Written By: Sheila Quirke, MSW
Reviewed By:Srilata Gundala, MD
