Antibody responses to second doses of COVID-19 vaccination in lung cancer patients undergoing treatment

Background: Several reports have revealed that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection tends to have more severe outcomes in cancer patients. Although vaccination reduces the risk of severe disease, data on antibody titers achieved by vaccination is scarce in cancer patients. Methods: We collected 79 blood samples (69 lung cancer patients and 10 control individuals) and conducted an anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody assay to compare the antibody titer achieved with current treatment. Sixty-eight patients (86%) received the BNT162 mRNA vaccine and 11 (14%) received the mRNA-1273 vaccine. They were categorized according to the current treatment: control individuals without cancer (cohort A), lung cancer patients who were treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy (cohort B), immunotherapy (cohort C), combination of cytotoxic chemotherapy and immunotherapy (cohort D), tyrosine kinase inhibitors (cohort E), and radiation therapy (cohort F). Results: Among 69 lung cancer patients (cohort B–F), 57 (83%) had adenocarcinoma, and 66 (96%) had advanced-stage cancer. In the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody assay, the antibody titer was significantly lower in lung cancer patients than in control individuals (p = 0.01). The median antibody titers were 161 AU/ml in control individuals and 59.9 AU/ml in lung cancer patients. Conclusions: Antibody titers after the second vaccination were lower in cancer patients than those in healthy individuals. Our findings provide essential information for understanding the benefits and necessity of additional vaccination to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in lung cancer patients.