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mRNA-based COVID vaccines improve immunotherapy

Posted by beebe @beebe, Nov 10 12:45pm

New research from MD Anderson: Getting a Covid mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immune check point therapy will increase the effectiveness of the treatment. The Moderna vaccine is higher in mRNA than the Pfizer vaccine. In the study they concocted their own vaccine which had a high RNA/lipid profile, higher than those two vaccines.
https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/research-newsroom/-esmo-2025--mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate-improved-response.h00-159780390.html
Survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumors, which would not be expected to respond well to immunotherapy. Those patients, who had very low PD-L1 expression on their tumors, experienced a nearly five-fold improvement in three-year overall survival with receipt of a COVID vaccine.
Food for thought if you are offered immunotherapy.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Cancer Support Group.

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louisejewell | @louisejewell | Nov 17 11:59am

wow, I had the opposite effect. I've been on libtayo for 18 months so far and still have small presence SCC in left neck
lymph node. I had a covid shot a few weeks before my 3 mo. PET scan and it showed the numbers for the tumor as increased. My oncologist said this can happen from covid shots as they trigger the immune system to fight. Now I'm waiting another month to have a follow up PET to see if that was the case.

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beebe | @beebe | Nov 17 12:59pm

The COVID-19 vaccine targets the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which can prep the immune system to respond better to immunotherapy, but it was not tested with all treatments or cancer types. According to the study, the Covid vaccine sends antiviral signals that wake up immune cells, letting more of them reach tumors, increase PD-L1 levels and make immunotherapy work better.

I think the Covid Vaccine is supposed to cause an immune response in your lymph nodes which pulls the white blood cells that have mutated away from the cancer so the immunotherapy can more readily recognize and attack the cancer. If your cancer is in your lymph nodes this idea may not be applicable. Hopefully the increase in activity is just a data point and not a trend. I am wondering if the covid vaccine had a temporary effect on your PET scan that will resolve before your follow-up.

Hang in there:)

Hang in there!

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Turkey, Volunteer Mentor | @tomrennie | Nov 17 3:16pm
In reply to @beebe "The COVID-19 vaccine targets the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which can prep the immune system to respond..." + (show)
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The COVID-19 vaccine targets the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which can prep the immune system to respond better to immunotherapy, but it was not tested with all treatments or cancer types. According to the study, the Covid vaccine sends antiviral signals that wake up immune cells, letting more of them reach tumors, increase PD-L1 levels and make immunotherapy work better.

I think the Covid Vaccine is supposed to cause an immune response in your lymph nodes which pulls the white blood cells that have mutated away from the cancer so the immunotherapy can more readily recognize and attack the cancer. If your cancer is in your lymph nodes this idea may not be applicable. Hopefully the increase in activity is just a data point and not a trend. I am wondering if the covid vaccine had a temporary effect on your PET scan that will resolve before your follow-up.

Hang in there:)

Hang in there!

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@beebe Where can I read that study? It sounds very interesting. Thanks.

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beebe | @beebe | Nov 17 3:53pm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09655-y
Let me know if you come away with any pearls. Sometimes reading research just scrambles my brain!

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