Influence of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine on Drug Therapy for Urological Cancer

Abstract

Background/Aim: We investigated whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination and its adverse events would cause cancer treatment of patients with urological cancer to be postponed or changed. Patients and Methods: We collected COVID-19 vaccination information including adverse events from the medical records of 214 patients with urological cancer receiving cancer drug therapy. Results: The cancer types were renal cancer in 40 cases (18.7%), upper urinary tract cancer in 10 cases (4.7%), bladder cancer in 21 cases (9.8%), prostate cancer in 140 cases (65.4%), and others in 3 cases (1.4%). Of the 214 patients, 178 (83.2%) had received the second dose of the vaccine. Out of 180 vaccinated patients, some adverse events were observed in 69 (38.3%). Vaccination rates for males and females were 85.4% (169/198) and 68.8% (11/16), respectively, and were not significantly different (p=0.081). The incidence of adverse events was significantly higher in females [72.7% (8/11)] than in males [36.1% (61/169)]; p=0.015. Treatment was modified in 11 vaccinated patients; postponed or changed at the discretion of the attending physician in 8 cases, skipped at the discretion of the patient in 1 case, and postponed due to side effects of the immune checkpoint inhibitor in 1 case. Treatment for one patient with upper urinary tract cancer on pembrolizumab was postponed for three weeks due to adverse events of the vaccine. Conclusion: Only 0.6% of the adverse events of the vaccine required postponement of treatment, suggesting that vaccination is safe even during cancer drug therapy.