Children With Cancer Benefit From Flu Vaccine.(Brief Article)

2001 JUL 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer - Children who are receiving or have recently received chemotherapy for cancer can benefit from influenza vaccination, according to a new report in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

A trivalent split virus influenza vaccine conferred protection on more than half of pediatric cancer patients, many of whom were found to be susceptible to all three strains, reported J.C. Chisholm and colleagues in England.

They tested 84 children who were receiving chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia or were within six months of completing chemotherapy, for susceptibility to the three strains circulating during influenza season 1995-1996. One-third were susceptible to all three strains, and only 8% were fully protected against all three.

Half the children received two doses of influenza vaccine. Among those who were susceptible, 66% exhibited some protective response and 55% showed protective titers for all three viral strains, reported Chisholm and coworkers.

Of the unimmunized children who were reassessed the following spring, 30% showed evidence of natural infection ("Response to influenza immunisation during treatment for cancer," Arch Dis Child, June 2001;84(6):496-500).

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