COVID-19 severity by vaccination status in the NCI COVID-19 and Cancer Patients Study (NCCAPS)

Abstract

We investigated the association of SARS CoV-2 vaccination with COVID-19 severity in a longitudinal study of adult cancer patients with COVID-19. A total of 1610 patients who were within 14days of an initial positive SARS CoV-2 test and had received recent anticancer treatment or had a history of stem cell transplant or CAR-T cell therapy were enrolled between May 21, 2020, and February 1, 2022. Patients were considered fully vaccinated if they were 2weeks past their second dose of mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273) or a single dose of adenovirus vector vaccine (Ad26.COV2.S) at the time of positive SARS CoV-2 test. We defined severe COVID-19 disease as hospitalization for COVID-19 or death within 30days. Vaccinated patients were significantly less likely to develop severe disease compared with those who were unvaccinated (odds ratio=0.44, 95% confidence interval = 0.28 to 0.72, P< .001). These results support COVID-19 vaccination among cancer patients receiving active immunosuppressive treatment.