Scientists suspected that Covid-19 vaccines would reduce the effectiveness of drugs used in the treatment of nasopharyngeal (upper pharynx) cancer. However, new clinical studies have shown the opposite. The study, conducted at the University of Bonn in Germany and Shanxi University in China, showed that vaccines increase the effectiveness of cancer treatment.Sinovac vaccine is beneficial for cancer treatment
Nasopharyngeal (upper pharyngeal) cancer is usually treated with the anti-PD-1 technique, which blocks PD-1 receptors on the surface of immune cells. There were similarities between the drugs, as the Covid-19 vaccines and many cancer cells also used the same cells. Thus, it was unclear and risky how Covid-19 vaccines would interact with such cancer treatments.
To understand whether this is a true concern, scientists investigated the effects of China’s inactivated Sinovac vaccine on cancer patients. More than 1,500 patients were observed within the scope of the study, according to treatment in 23 hospitals. 373 of these patients had received the Sinovac vaccine before starting cancer treatment. Researchers found that these people responded better to cancer treatment.“We hypothesize that vaccination activates certain immune cells that attack the tumor. We will now explore this hypothesis further,” says Qi Mei, a cancer researcher at Shanxi University Hospital in China.
Scientists can use drugs to block PD-1 receptors in the treatment of this type of cancer, thereby stimulating the immune system to fight tumor cells. The team participating in the study states that more work needs to be done in this area.
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