Clinical effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and booster doses in patients with cancer: An analysis from the European OnCovid registry

ABSTRACT

Background: Immunogenicity and safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been widely investigated in patients (pts) with cancer. However, their effectiveness against Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the additional protective effect of a booster dose in this population are yet to be defined. Methods: Using OnCovid study data (NCT04393974), a European registry enrolling consecutive pts with cancer and COVID-19, we evaluated morbidity and 14 days case fatality rates (CFR14) from COVID-19 in pts who were unvaccinated, vaccinated (either partially/full vaccinated but not boosted) and those who had received a third dose. Analyses were restricted to pts diagnosed between 17/11/2021 (first breakthrough infection in a boosted pt) and the 31/01/2022. Pts with unknown vaccination status were excluded. Results: By the data lock of 22/02/2022, out of 3820 consecutive pts from 36 institutions, 415 pts from 3 countries (UK, Spain, Italy) were eligible for analysis. Among them, 51 (12.3%) were unvaccinated, 178 (42.9%) were vaccinated and 186 (44.8%) were boosted. Among vaccinated pts, 26 (14.6%) were partially vaccinated (1 dose). Pts with haematological malignancies had more likely received a booster dose prior to infection (25.4% vs 13.6% and 11.8%, p = 0.02). We found no other associations between vaccination status and pts' characteristics including sex, age, comorbidities, smoking history, tumour stage, tumour status and receipt of systemic anticancer therapy. Compared to unvaccinated pts, boosted and vaccinated pts achieved improved CFR14 (6.8% and 7.0% vs 22.4%, p = 0.01), COVID-19-related hospitalization rates (26.1% and 20.6% vs 41.2%, p = 0.01) and COVID-19-related complications rates (14.5% and 15.7% vs 31.4%). Using multivariable Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting (IPTW) models adjusted for sex, comorbidities, tumour status and country of origin we confirmed that boosted (OR 0.21, 95%CI 0.05-0.89) and vaccinated pts (OR 0.19, 95%CI 0.04-0.81) achieved improved CFR14 compared to unvaccinated pts, whilst a significantly reduced risk of COVID-19 complications (OR 0.26, 95%CI 0.07-0.93) was reported for vaccinated pts only. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 vaccines protect from COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in pts with cancer. Accounting for the enrichment of haematologic pts in the boosted group, the observation of comparable mortality outcomes between boosted and vaccinated pts is reassuring and suggests boosting to be associated with reduced mortality in more vulnerable subjects, despite evidence of adverse features in this group.