A recent study conducted by the Universities of Bonn and Shanxi has found that patients with Nasopharyngeal cancer who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 respond better to cancer treatment. The study suggests that the immune system stimulation caused by the vaccine is responsible for this effect. Previously, medical experts had feared that Covid-19 vaccination could lead to severe side effects and reduced efficacy of cancer treatment in patients with Nasopharyngeal cancer. This was thought to be due to drugs that activate the immune system to fight the tumor. However, the study shows that the opposite is true. The cancer drugs are more effective in patients who have been vaccinated with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine than in unvaccinated cancer patients.
The study is based on data from over 1,500 cancer patients from 23 hospitals across China. The researchers found that the cancer drugs were more effective in patients who had been vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine than in unvaccinated cancer patients. The study is particularly significant because it is a multicenter study with multiple data sources, making its results more reliable. The researchers believe that the vaccine activates certain immune cells that attack the tumor, but they are not yet sure of the exact mechanism.
Dr. Jian Li from the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Experimental Immunology at the University Hospital Bonn said that the medical community had previously believed that Covid-19 vaccination was not compatible with anti-PD-1 therapy, which blocks the PD-1 receptor that many cancer cells use to weaken the immune response. However, the study shows that vaccinated cancer patients respond better to anti-PD-1 therapy and experience fewer side effects. The researchers plan to investigate further to understand the mechanism behind this effect.
