Filenews 10 April 2021
Pfizer/BioNTech's mRNA vaccine is safe for patients who do cancer immunotherapies with drugs belonging to so-called "immune checkpoint inhibitors," according to Israeli scientists.
The researchers who published the study in the oncology journal "The Lancet Oncology," according to Reuters, studied 134 vaccinated cancer patients, 18 of whom also had chemotherapy in addition to pharmaceutical immunotherapy.
It was found, according to researcher Dr. Indo Wolf of Tel Aviv's Suraski Medical Centre, that "the vaccine is doubly safe, as we have seen neither effects on immunotherapy nor serious side effects from the vaccine itself."
"We believe that the vaccine should be given to these patients, especially those living in areas with covid-19 exacerbation," he said. On the other hand, according to the researchers, "there are questions that need to be answered for these patients, such as whether there will be any long-term effects."
"We studied our patients only a few weeks after the second dose and we cannot rule out the possibility of some effects over time," they say. Also under investigation is whether other anticancer drugs, such as those of chemotherapies, may reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine against coronavirus.
Source: CYPE/RES
