Publications

Patients with cancer are at greater risk of severe COVID-19 and have been prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination globally. We previously showed that following two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, neutralising antibody (nAb) responses against the B.1.1.7 (alpha), B.1.351 (beta), and B.1.617.2 (delta) variants of concern (VOCs) are decreased compared to the wild type (WT) SARS-CoV-2, particularly in patients with blood cancer. More recently, we reported that following a third vaccine dose, nAb responses to these VOCs increase in most patients with cancer, including those with no or waning response following two vaccine doses. Since November, 2021, the B.1.1.529 (omicron) VOC has rapidly become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 VOC globally. Omicron partially evades vaccine-induced immunity, but a third vaccine dose increases omicron nAb responses in the general population. Comparable data in patients with cancer are lacking, leaving patients and cancer physicians without the means to calibrate infection risk while maintaining necessary cancer treatments. We used live-virus micro-neutralisation assays to evaluate response to omicron following three doses of COVID-19 vaccine in participants of the CAPTURE study (NCT03226886), a prospective, longitudinal cohort of patients with cancer.