Seroprevalence of serum measles antibody in children with tumor after chemotherapy / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the serum measles antibody in children with tumor and to provide the clinical evidence for measles vaccination strategy for this special population.Methods:From January 2016 to December 2018, the blood samples of children who were diagnosed with hematological malignancy or solid tumors and received chemotherapy in the Department of Hematology or Oncology Surgery of Children′s Hospital of Fudan University were collected. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to quantitatively detect the level of measles IgG antibody, and dynamically monitor the changes of measles antibody level during chemotherapy. Kruskal-Wallis test and chi-square test were used for statistical analysis.Results:A total of 441 children with tumors were enrolled, with the positive rate of measles antibody of 79.1%(349/441), and only 43.3%(191/441) of children had the protective level of IgG antibody. There was a statistically significant difference of the antibody protection rate in children aged<eight months old, eight months old to <two years old, two years old to <six years old, and ≥six years old ( χ2=15.647, P<0.01). There was no statistically significant difference of the protection rate of serum measles antibody between children aged two to <six years and≥six years (43.8%(95/217) vs 41.1%(58/141), P>0.05). The protection rate of serum measles antibody in children with hematological malignancy and solid tumor were 45.6%(78/171) and 41.9%(113/270), respectively, and there was no statistically significant ( P>0.05). There were 16.3%(16/98) of children who were observed to lose the pre-existing protective antibody during chemotherapy. There was no statistically significant difference of the protection rate of serum among children who had finished chemotherapy <six months, six months to <one year, one year to <two years, and ≥two years ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Serum measles antibody is below the protective level in more than 50% of children with malignancy after chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can compromise the protective antibody against measles. It is recommended for this special population to re-schedule measles vaccine after individualized evaluation to acquire the immuneprotection against measles.