Covid vaccines have been the most talked about topic over the last three years. These vaccine doses protect millions of people from the deadly coronavirus. The development of Covid-19 vaccines that were both safe and effective was a critical step in the fight against the deadly pandemic. Aside from its significant contribution to humanity, a new study has revealed that the Covid vaccine can help improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment.
A study has been conducted by Universities of Bonn and Shanxi found that nasopharyngeal cancer drugs worked much better after Covid vaccination than in unvaccinated patients. Nasopharyngeal cancer is a type of cancer that affects the throat.
"Many cancer cells are capable of subverting the body's immune response. They do this by pushing a kind of button on the immune cells, the PD-1 receptor. In this way, they effectively shut down these endogenous defence forces. Drugs can be used to block PD-1 receptors. This enables the immune system to fight the tumour more effectively," said the University of Bonn in a release.
Vaccination against Covid also stimulates the immune response, involving the PD-1 receptor. "It was feared that the vaccine would not be compatible with anti-PD-1 therapy," explains Dr. Jian Li of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Experimental Immunology (IMMEI) at the University Hospital Bonn. "This risk is especially true for nasopharyngeal cancer, which, like the SARS Cov-2 virus, affects the upper respiratory tract."
ScienceAlert reported that, the team analysed the records of 1,537 patients being treated for nasopharyngeal cancer across 23 hospitals. Of that cohort, 373 individuals had been vaccinated with the SinoVac Covid-19 vaccine used in China before starting their cancer treatment.
"Surprisingly, they responded significantly better to anti-PD-1 therapy than the unvaccinated patients," says Christian Kurts, an immunologist at the University of Bohn.
"Furthermore, they did not experience severe side effects more often."
