SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Patients with Thymic Epithelial Tumours with and without active or pre-existing autoimmune disorders: brief report of a TYME Network safety analysis
Ce dossier présente un ensemble d'articles concernant la prise en charge des cancers durant la crise sanitaire liée au COVID-19
Background : International guidelines recommend SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine for patients with cancer. A substantial risk of developing vaccine-related autoimmune toxicities could be hypothesized for patients with Thymic Epithelial Tumours (TETs) due to their high risk of autoimmune disorders (ADs). Moreover, a cross-reaction between SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies and various tissue proteins has been shown, and antibodies against nucleoproteins showed overlaps in the autoimmune cross-reaction with antibodies to spike protein. Due to the rarity of TETs, no data addressing this hypothesis are available.
Methods : Patients with TETs who received SARS-CoV2 vaccine, treated in 4 referral centers of the Italian Collaborative Group for ThYmic MalignanciEs (TYME) network between February 2021 and September 2021, were interviewed through a standardized 15-items questionnaire, in order to describe the safety of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in patients affected by TETs.
Results : Data from 245 doses of vaccine administered to 126 patients (41 = thymic carcinoma, 85 = thymoma; 38 with AD of which 26 with active AD) were collected. Nine patients had a previous COVID-19 positive swab. No cases of AD reactivation or worsening of a preexisting AD were seen in the study population. New diagnosis of myasthenia gravis likely unrelated to vaccine was made in two patients after the vaccination. Sixty-four patients (51%) experienced a total of 103 Adverse Events, all G1/G2, most commonly fatigue, new or worsening muscle pain and chills. None AE required patients’ hospitalization.
Conclusions : SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-vaccines appear to be safe in patients with TET, even in case of active or pre-existing AD.
European Journal of Cancer , article en libre accès, 2021