The results from a new study indicate that the innovative mRNA covid vaccines can be effective in cancer treatment. The study was conducted on a wide range of veterans affected by the disease. The most important outcome from the research was the confirmed information about the mRNA vaccines being able to prevent infections common in cancer treatment. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are examples of mRNA viruses.
mRNA vaccines are among the first coronavirus vaccines legalized and approved for public use in the United States.
Infections are common in the long process of cancer treatments. The immune system gets suppressed, especially as a side-effect of chemotherapy.
The average age of the participants was around 73.7. More than 95% of them were men. About 113,000 participants were given one of the mRNA vaccines recognized by the ‘Food and Drug Administration. The survey was exclusively for people vaccinated between 15th Dec 2020 to 4th May 2021.
The researchers analyzed massive volumes of the medical history of about 180,000 VA patients who were subjected to systemic or whole-body treatments. The term ‘systemic or whole-body treatment’, applies to hormone therapy or chemotherapy carried out between August 2010 and May 2021.
Patients with a previous history of covid-19 infection were not made part of the study.
Here is a detailed look into the findings of the study. Both the mRNA vaccines were approximately 58% effective concerning their infection prevention potential when analyzed at the beginning of two weeks after the 2nd dose.
The vaccines showed about 85% effectiveness in patients whose cancer treatment was successfully completed six or more months before the first dose of vaccine. However, they were around 54% effective among people who underwent cancer treatment within three months of the first covid vaccine dose.
These messenger RNA vaccines may be new for the general public. However, scientists have been researching them for decades.