Impact of the influenza vaccination on cancer patients undergoing therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI).
Plain-language summary
This retrospective review of 534 cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center compared those who received the influenza vaccine (72.1%) with those who did not. Vaccinated and unvaccinated patients developed similar overall rates of immune-related adverse events, but among the patients who did develop such events, those who were unvaccinated were more likely to have pneumonitis and to be admitted; separately, unvaccinated patients were more likely to be admitted for flu-related complications. Vaccination did not change progression-free survival but was associated with improved overall survival, suggesting the flu vaccine did not increase toxicity in these patients and may be linked to better outcomes.
Read the full paper (DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2018.36.15_suppl.3053).
This is a plain-language summary written for discoverability; the authoritative version is the published paper. Part of Travis Osterman's peer-reviewed publications.