Premium
Loss of antibody titers and effectiveness of revaccination in post‐chemotherapy pediatric sarcoma patients
Author(s) -
Yu Jennifer,
Chou Alexander J.,
Lennox Alison,
Kleiman Phillip,
Wexler Leonard H.,
Meyers Paul A.,
Gorlick Richard
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.21277
Subject(s) - medicine , rubella , measles , tetanus , antibody titer , chemotherapy , vaccination , hepatitis b , poliomyelitis , hepatitis , immunology , chemotherapy regimen , titer , antibody , virology
Background Little is known about the effects of chemotherapy on patient antibody titers to vaccine‐preventable infectious diseases; thus, there is no standard protocol for revaccinating post‐chemotherapy patients. Procedures To assess losses of detectable antibody titers due to chemotherapy, we retrospectively examined antibody titers for tetanus, varicella, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, and polio in 109 pediatric sarcoma patients. We also evaluated revaccination data to determine current practices and efficacy of revaccination. We limited our sample to osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma patients to control for the chemotherapy regimen patients received. Results Patients had pre‐treatment detectable antibody titer that fell within the range of healthy children's antibody titers. However, 71% of patients had post‐chemotherapy negative titers for at least one infectious disease. Patients most commonly had negative titers for hepatitis B (64%). Few patients had negative titers for measles (14%), mumps (9%), rubella (4%), polio 1 (0%), polio 2 (2.9%), polio 3 (4.8%), tetanus (5%), or varicella (11%). Revaccinations most frequently administered were hepatitis B and polio. Conclusions Our findings suggest that post‐chemotherapy patients may need to be revaccinated against certain vaccine‐preventable diseases including hepatitis B, tetanus, varicella, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. Larger studies need to be performed to establish guidelines for revaccinating post‐chemotherapy pediatric patients. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2007;49:656–660. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.