A sufficient immune reconstruction when has been completed in childhood cancer survivors, the re-vaccination program can achieve acceptable antibody levels for some of the life-threatening vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. This study evaluates pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia cases’ serological status before and after the intensive chemotherapy treatment. Antibodies against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A and B were tested with the ELISA method. Antibody titers were measured firstly at the leukemia diagnosis time when practitioners did not start the chemotherapy. Researchers studied the second evaluation of antibody titers six months after the cessation of chemotherapy for all patients. Forty-six patients with a mean age of 6.1 ± 4.5 years participated in this study. After treatment, changing to seronegative was significantly different in measles, rubella, hepatitis A and hepatitis B. Seventy-eight antibody levels in the patients were non-protective for all diseases. Only three patients had protective antibody levels for all illnesses in the sixth month of chemotherapy cessation. There was a negative correlation between a patient’s age and losing protective antibody levels for any vaccine-preventable illness. Antibody levels against vaccine-preventable diseases have evident that reduced after ALL treatment at childhood. Pediatric ALL survivors must be re-vaccinated for vaccine-preventable conditions after achieving immune reconstruction.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2020.1802975
