Cancer Patients and COVID-19 Vaccines

On January 22, 2021, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) released their Preliminary Recommendations of the NCCN COVID-19 Vaccination Advisory Committee and concluded the following:

• Patients with cancer should be prioritized for vaccination (according to the CDC priority group 1b/c) and should be immunized when vaccination is available to them.
•  Immunization is recommended for all patients receiving active therapy, with the understanding that there is limited data on the safety and efficacy in these patients.
• The reasons to delay the vaccine are similar to the those of the general public (eg, recent exposure to COVID-19) or cancer-specific factors.
• Vaccination should be delayed for at least 3 months following hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) or engineered cellular therapy (eg, CAR T-cells) to maximize vaccine efficacy.
• Caregivers and household/close contacts should be immunized when possible.
• The recommendations are based on the expert opinion of the committee as there is limited to no clinical efficacy data currently available on cancer patients.

For more detailed information, please review the full recommendations.

For more resources to assist in the management of patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the AONN+ COVID-19 Navigator Toolkit.

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