A Vaccine Shield Against Shingles for Cancer Patients

Receiving a vaccine (usually in the form of an inactivated pathogen) triggers an immune response without the symptoms of infection. This is like a drill that “trains” the immune system to recognize and destroy the pathogen should it be encountered in the future. Can vaccines offer the same protection if the immune system is compromised?

For patients with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, the answer is usually no. This difficult-to-vaccinate group has an elevated risk of developing shingles — a resurgence of the virus that causes chickenpox — provoking a number of extremely painful and potentially life-threatening symptoms.

“This is one of the best vaccine responses anyone has seen in patients with these indolent lymphomas.”

A shingles vaccine does exist and is recommended for adults over 50. Unfortunately, with the immune system crippled lymphoma patients are unable to mount an effective response to shield them from the virus. Moreover, BTK inhibitors, a pharmacological agent used to treat the cancer, is known to disrupt immune responses to the shingles vaccine.

Researchers at the Wilmot Cancer Institute have published data showing a promising new version of the shingles vaccine which has been shown…