Our recent CLL Global Research Foundation Town Hall featured CLL Global President, Dr. William Wierda, and Dr. Alessandra Ferrajoli, from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Watch the full webinar.
Expert Panel:
Dr. William Wierda, President & CEO, CLL Global Research Foundation
Dr. Alessandra Ferrajoli, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Transcript:
Jamie Forward:
So, let’s start with this one. Dr. Wierda, what do we know about the impact of the COVID vaccine on CLL?
Dr. William Wierda:
What do we know about the impact of the vaccine on CLL? We know that patients do get an immune response when they receive the vaccine. There are two vaccines that have been the predominant vaccines in use for most of the time during the pandemic and in the short period after the pandemic. Those are the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine. Those are the mRNA vaccines. That’s a new vaccine strategy. We don’t have much long-term understanding of complications and side effects and toxicities that patients and normal individuals, individuals who don’t have CLL can have.
And so, I think repeated vaccination and long-term follow-up is a question that most of us are thinking about and are considering in our current strategy of what we recommend for our patients. Again, this is the first mRNA vaccine that we’ve had. The traditional type of vaccine that we have had has been the one similar, that’s the strategy with the influenza vaccine, the flu shot. That’s a protein-based vaccine.
Right now, there is a protein vaccine available for COVID-19, that’s the Novavax. And so, for patients who are interested in boosters and revaccinating, my recommendation recently has been to transition more into the more transitional strategy of vaccination with the protein-based vaccine.
And again, that’s the Novavax in preference over the mRNA vaccines. The other thing I would mention is that we have treatments for active COVID-19 infections. We have remdesivir (Veklury) and we have nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), and so while it was initially a life-threatening diagnosis and illness, our patients do relatively well, in my opinion, these days with the vaccine strategies that we’ve implemented and the treatments that we have for patients who develop those infections.
Dr. Alessandra Ferrajoli:
I may add that there were also studies looking at how the COVID vaccines work in patients according to what treatment they are receiving. Definitely, we see better responses in terms of antibody response for patients that received the vaccine before they start any treatment.
The lower level of responses are seen for the patients that are receiving monoclonal antibodies or they have received monoclonal antibodies recently. There were studies done looking at whether taking a pause on the treatment for CLL, in particular those studies were done with Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors, would improve the response of the vaccination, and that was demonstrated not to be the case. So, it’s important to remember that there is no need to stop the treatment for receiving the vaccination because that did not make a difference.
But yes, being vaccinated, using the vaccine that is the best match for the current COVID strain is what we recommend. I agree with Dr. Wierda, we will like to keep receiving boosters and being vaccinated as much as possible.