Humoral and cellular immunogenicity two months after SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA vaccines in patients with cancer

Natacha Bordry; Alfredo Addeo; Cyril Jaksic; Valérie Dutoit; Pascale Roux-Lombard; Dimpy P Shah; Pankil K Shah; Angèle Gayet-Ageron; Alex Friedlaender; Sébastien Bugeia; Garance Gutknecht; Anna Battagin; Maragrazia Di Marco; Pierre-Francois Simand; Intidhar Labidi-Galy; Sarah Fertani; José Sandoval; Pierre-Yves Dietrich; Nicolas Mach

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103699

Humoral and cellular immunogenicity two months after SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA vaccines in patients with cancer

iScience. 2021 Dec 24;25(1):103699. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103699. eCollection 2022 Jan 21.

Authors

Natacha Bordry¹, Alfredo Addeo¹, Cyril Jaksic², Valérie Dutoit¹, Pascale Roux-Lombard³, Dimpy P Shah⁴, Pankil K Shah⁴, Angèle Gayet-Ageron², Alex Friedlaender^{1

5}, Sébastien Bugeia¹, Garance Gutknecht¹, Anna Battagin¹, Maragrazia Di Marco¹, Pierre-Francois Simand¹, Intidhar Labidi-Galy¹, Sarah Fertani¹, José Sandoval¹, Pierre-Yves Dietrich¹, Nicolas Mach¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, Geneva University Hospital, University of Geneva and Swiss Cancer Center Leman, Rue Perret-Gentil 4, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
² CRC& Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Health and Community Medicine, University of Geneva and Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
³ Immunology and Allergology Laboratory, Geneva University Hospital, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
⁴ Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, San Antonio, TX, USA.
⁵ Oncology Department, University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, Clinique Générale Beaulieu, Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

Little is known on the long-lasting humoral response and the T cell activation induced by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines in patients with cancer. The study assessed the efficacy of the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines through measuring the seroconversion rate at pre-specified time points and the effect on the T cell immunity in patients with cancers. The study included 131 adult patients with solid or hematological cancer, who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. 96.2% of them exhibited adequate antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines 2 months after the booster dose. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines could induce T cell activation; however, this is more likely in patients who have a positive seroconversion (94%) compared with the patients who did not (50%). Further research into the clinical relevance of low antibodies titers and lack of T cell activity is required to set up an effective vaccination strategy within this group of patients.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Immune response; Virology.