Vaccination against Covid-19 could aid cancer treatments

The joint work of the universities of Bonn (Germany) and Shanxi (China) clarifies a question that worries many oncologists around the world: whether vaccination against Covid-19 will reduce the success of cancer treatments – affecting the immune system of patients. — and may even cause serious side effects.

Many cancer cells have the ability to deregulate the body’s immune response by “pressing” a type of on-off switch found in immune system cells: PD-1 receiver🇧🇷 What anticancer drugs do is to block these receptors so that the body’s defenses can work again. But the question was: What is the impact of vaccines on antiPD-1 therapies?

Published in the magazine last month Oncology Annualsresearch showed encouraging results: in addition to a negative effect, cancer drugs worked better in vaccinated patients Compared to those not vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine SinoVac (from the same company that developed CoronaVac).

How did scientists discover that the vaccine helps treat cancer?

How immunizations against Covid-19 stimulate the body’s immune response – explain EurekAlert Doctor. Jian Li of Bonn University Hospital “was feared that the vaccine would not be compatible with antiPD-1 therapy”. “Nasopharyngeal cancer affecting the upper respiratory tract such as SARS-Cov-2 virus”🇧🇷

Scientists used common in China assessing 1,500 patients treated at 23 hospitals in that countrywhere nasopharyngeal cancer is recognized as one of the main causes of death among young men. A subset of 373 patients from this population were vaccinated with SinoVac.

To the researchers’ surprise, this group not only responded better to antiPD-1 therapy, but did not experience serious side effects. Although they can’t say why this happens.Scientists claim that the vaccine activates certain immune cells and then attacks tumors.

ARTICLE 🇧🇷 Oncology Annuals – DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2022.10.002.