Are novel flu vaccines an answer for high-risk patients?
Yale researchers reduce flu in cancer patients five-fold
Amid ongoing efforts to get 90% of healthcare workers immunized against seasonal flu by 2020, researchers are seeking to boost the immunity of high-risk patients to protect them from serious and even fatal flu infections in the hospital and the community.
One such group is those with plasma cell disorders (PCD), a cancer of the immune system that leaves people highly vulnerable to complications from seasonal flu infection. Yale Cancer Center researchers presented some promising findings for these patients recently in Orlando at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.
Based on historical data, these plasma disorder patients have a 10-fold increased risk of influenza and an expected yearly flu infection rate of at least 20%. Standard immunization results in poor expression of protective immunity, so the researchers gave the cancer patients two shots of Fluzone high-dose vaccine 30 days apart during the 2014-15 flu season. Eligibility criteria allowed any patient with PCD and no contraindication to trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine. The primary endpoint was laboratory confirmed flu infection rate. Patients were asked to report all flu-like illnesses for viral testing and patients were asked about infectious symptoms at all study visits and at the end of the flu season in May 2015.
“Interestingly the rate of documented flu infections was only 4% compared to an expected 20% and may be due in part to the higher rate of seroconversion,” the authors concluded1. Given the encouraging clinical results, they are planning a randomized clinical trial of the approach during the 2015-2016 influenza season.
A total of 51 patients enrolled with a median age of 75 years. The novel, off-label vaccination strategy was safely tolerated in all patients. With close clinical follow-up, only 4% (2/51) of patients developed laboratory-confirmed influenza.
REFERENCE
- Branagan AR, Duffy E, Boddupall CS, et al. Fluzone® High-Dose Influenza Vaccine with a Booster Is Associated with Low Rates of Influenza Infection in Patients with Plasma Cell Disorders. Session 653. Abstract 3058. The American Society for Hematology. Orlando, FL. Dec. 5-8, 2015.
Amid ongoing efforts to get 90% of healthcare workers immunized against seasonal flu by 2020, researchers are seeking to boost the immunity of high-risk patients to protect them from serious and even fatal flu infections in the hospital and the community.
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