More than one in 10 cancer patients (11%) refuses the anti-Covid vaccination. The reasons? For 48% the fear of side effects, for 26.7% the concern of possible interactions with anticancer therapy, for 10.7% the fear of allergic reactions. To show it is an Italian study, the first in the world on the adherence of cancer patients to the anti-Covid vaccination, was conducted between 1 and 20 March 2021, involving 914 people under treatment at the Regina Elena Institute in Rome, and is being published in the European Journal of Cancer.
Waste more than doubled after discontinuation of the Astrazeneca vaccine
The data collected also tell us that the temporary suspension of the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine (in the period between 15 and 19 March) caused a sharp decline in the propensity of these fragile patients to also be vaccinated with Pfizer. Citizens affected by cancer who said no, in fact, more than doubled after March 15, from 8.6% to 19.7%. The data are worrying, because “citizens affected by cancer have a greater risk of complications if infected with Covid, with a mortality rate of 30% in the event of hospitalization”, explains Francesco Cognetti, who coordinated the study, director of Oncology Medica del Regina Elena in Rome and president of FOCE (Federation of oncologists, cardiologists and hematologists).
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I study
The majority of patients in the study (96%) were on active treatment or had received it within the previous 6 months and 4% were under surveillance with disease progression. In line with the Government’s vaccination plan, these patients were offered the BNT162b2 vaccine, manufactured by Pfizer. “A survey had been conducted in France, before the start of the immunization campaign, and had highlighted the lack of propensity to vaccinate by 16.6% of cancer patients”, continues the oncologist: “Our study, on the other hand, is refers to the actual refusal to receive the vaccine. And for the first time in the world a photograph of this type is taken, referring to the current campaign. Furthermore, in the French study, more than half of the patients were under surveillance or were taking hormone therapy compared to the population enrolled in our work, which is mostly in active treatment ”.
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by Tiziana Moriconi
The influence of alarmist news
According to the expert, the increase in the rate of refusals after the suspension of AstraZeneca is the demonstration that the decisions of the regulatory authorities and the information disseminated by the media can influence the willingness of patients to access immunization. “The refusal rate, which reached 19.7%, is much higher (+ 5%) than what was reported in a survey in the Italian general population in the same period”, underlines Cognetti: “We can therefore assume that cancer patients, despite having a consistent risk of lethality from Covid, suffer greater negative influence from information on the safety of the vaccine, precisely because of their great fragility. And in fact – he concludes – the rejection rate was higher among patients with more serious clinical conditions. The dramatic decrease in vaccine adherence can result in a high number of otherwise avoidable deaths. To achieve the success of the vaccination campaign, with the appropriate involvement of the most vulnerable, it is necessary to have more clarity in decisions by the regulatory authority and more caution in the dissemination of potentially alarmist news, taken up with too much echo before a valid scientific review ” .
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