Table 2.
Studies on SARS-CoV-2-related immune responses in cancer patients
| First author, year and month (country) | Type of cancer | Objective | Cancer cohort size | Methodology and duration of study | Significant findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdul-Jawad, 2021 January117 (UK) | S, H | Determine how the immune system is affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection of cancer patients | 41 (23 S, 18 H) | Prospective study (March–May 2020) | Haematologic malignancies – heterogeneous humoral responses, exhausted T cell phenotype and high prevalence of prolonged virus shedding. Recovered haematologic cancer patients – lingering immunological legacies. Recovered solid cancer patients’ immunophenotypes almost similar to those of non-virus-exposed cancer patients |
| Annika, 2021 September118 (UK) | S, H | Compare humoral and cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in solid and haematologic cancer patients | 357 | Prospective, longitudinal cohort study (May 2020–March 2021) | Solid malignancies – capable of developing humoral and cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Haematologic malignancies – impaired humoral response associated with malignancy type and anti-CD20 treatments |
| Bange, 2021 May86 (USA) | H | Determine immune parameters that lead to clinical outcomes | 100 | Prospective observational cohort study of patients with cancer who were hospitalized with COVID-19 (April–September 2020) | Patients with cancer – significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG and IgM antibodies than patients without cancer; most prominent in haematologic cancer patients; solid cancer patients had IgG and IgM antibody responses that were more similar to patients without cancer |
| Esperança, 2021 May119 (Portugal) | S, H | Determine the humoral immune response of patients with cancer against SARS-CoV-2 | 72 (19 cancer, 53 controls) | Single-centre, retrospective study (March–June 2020) | Patients with cancer – weaker SARS-CoV-2 antibody response compared with those without cancer. Associations with persistently weak serological responses – treatment with chemotherapy within 14 d before positivity |
| Hempel, 2020 January120 (Germany) | S, H | Analyse development of antibodies in patients with cancer following SARS-CoV-2 | 77 | Multicentre, prospective study (April 2020) | Patients with cancer had poorly developed antibodies following infection |
| Huang, 2021 February121 (USA) | H | Study underlying immune mechanisms leading to increased mortality in cancer patients with COVID-19 | Cancer 106, non-cancer controls 113 | Prospective study (April–September 2020) | Haematologic cancer – significant impairment of B cells and SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses. Solid cancer – immune phenotype similar to non-cancer patients. Even in haematologic cancers if preserved CD8 T cells they had a lower viral load and mortality. Even if depletion of B cells with anti-CD20 therapy resulted in complete impairment of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG and IgM antibodies, mortality was not increased if adequate CD8 T cells were present |
| Huang, 2020 September114 (China) | S, H | Describe the characteristics, screening methods and outcomes of cancer patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 infection | 16 | Retrospective study (February–April 2020) | Lymphocyte counts were normal in all asymptomatic carriers (host immunity of asymptomatic carriers is not significantly disrupted by COVID-19) |
| Liu, 2020 June115 (China) | S, H | Compare the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in cancer patients and non-cancer patients | Cancer 40, non-cancer 1430 | Prospective study (February–April 2020) | Prevalence of IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in cancer patients with COVID-19 was much lower than in patients without cancer |
| Marra, 2020 January122 (France) | S, H | Determine seroconversion rates of cancer patients and COVID-19 | Cancer 61, non-cancer 105 (86 PCR positive) | Multicentre, observational, prospective study (March–May 2020) | No difference in SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG antibody detection in cancer patients and healthy subjects |
| Paschold, 2020 October123 (Germany) | S, H | Determine SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody rearrangements of immune systems of cancer patients in order to explain the outcome | Cancer 500, healthy controls 200 | Prospective study (July 2020) | B cell response restriction in aging and cancer |
| Solodky, 2020 May116 (France) | S, H | Compare the SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in cancer patients versus healthcare workers after symptomatic COVID-19 | 85 | Retrospective study (March–April 2020) | Seroconversion rate significantly lower in cancer patients. Antibodies almost undetectable in patients receiving cancer treatments in the month before antibody testing |
| Thakkar, 2021 March124 (USA) | S, H | Evaluate the rate of seroconversion for SARS-CoV-2 IgG for patients with cancer and its association with the type of malignancy and type of anticancer therapy | 261 | Observational, retrospective exploratory cohort study (March–September 2020) | Significantly reduced (absent) seroconversion observed in haematologic malignancies, patients receiving anti-CD20 therapy, CAR T cell therapy and stem cell transplant |
CAR: chimeric antigen receptor; H: haematologic cancer; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; S: solid cancer.