Anti-SARS-CoV-2 cellular response after 2 and 3 doses of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in lymphoma patients receiving anti-CD20 antibodies

Abstract

Patients receiving anti-CD20 antibodies showed limited efficacy of a booster dose of BNT162b2. Patients with lymphomas combine such immunotherapies with cytotoxic chemotherapies that could result in an even greater alteration of the immune response to vaccination. We report here the impact of a third vaccine dose on T cell specific responses in a small cohort of patients treated in our center by anti-CD20 therapies and cytotoxic chemotherapies for lymphoid malignancies. Our results showed that a third dose in these severely immune suppressed patients could improve the expansion on CD4⁺Th1⁺T cell responses while the effect CD8 + T cell responses was marginal.

Keywords: COVID-19; Hematological malignancies; Immunocompromised; T cell responses; Third dose; Vaccine.