SpikeVax Vaccine Produced Robust Antibody Responses in Myeloid Malignancies Patients

Patients with myeloid malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), are at a high risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, confirmed a research paper presented on December 11, 2021.

And, these cancer patients were found to benefit from mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Myeloid malignancies are clonal diseases of hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells. They result from genetic and epigenetic alterations that perturb key processes such as self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation.

These researchers enrolled AML and MDS patients in a large, single-site observational study of Moderna, Inc.'s SpikeVax (mRNA-1273) vaccination in cancer patients during the period in January 2021.

A total of 46 patients, 30 with AML and 16 with MDS, and a median age of 68 yrs. were included in this study.  

Overall, 69.6% of patients were seropositive on day 29 (after the first dose), and 95.7% were seropositive on day 57 (after two doses).

And antibody titer levels were significantly higher after the 2nd vaccine dose than after the 1st dose (mean 3806.5 vs. 315, p<0.0001), a difference observed across the different variables and patient subsets.

The most common adverse events post-vaccination were mild injection site pain, fatigue, headache, and arm swelling.

In conclusion, these researchers stated 'this observational study is the largest reported to date amongst AML and MDS patients with serial serologic data following two vaccine doses.

We found that the vast majority of patients with AML and MDS converted to seropositivity after two doses of the vaccine.

Although the overall sample size was relatively small, most clinical and laboratory variables (including neutropenia and lymphopenia) did not affect the seropositivity rate.

Antibody titer levels increased dramatically following the 2nd vaccine dose, indicating the potential utility for serial vaccination (i.e., additional dosing) in poorly-responsive patients.

While these findings should be substantiated in a larger cohort, the (SpikeVax) mRNA-273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine appears to induce a robust humoral response in this population of patients with AML and MDS.'