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Immunisation practices of paediatric oncology and shared care oncology consultants: a United Kingdom survey

Jessica Bate1, Soonie R Patel, Julia Chisholm

  • 1Division of Child Health, St. George's University of London, London, UK. jbate@sgul.ac.uk

Pediatric Blood & Cancer
|February 18, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Most UK pediatric cancer centers follow re-immunization guidelines after chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. However, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine recommendations were lower than expected, indicating a need for updated guidelines.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Oncology
  • Immunology
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) introduced re-immunisation guidelines in 2002.
  • Guidelines cover children post-chemotherapy and post-haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess adherence to RCPCH re-immunisation guidelines among UK pediatric centers.
  • To evaluate current practices in principal treatment centres (PTC) and shared care (SC) consultants.

Main Methods:

  • An anonymised online survey was distributed to UK PTC and SC consultants in October 2008.
  • The survey targeted consultants within the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG) network.

Main Results:

  • High stated compliance (94.3%) with RCPCH guidelines for re-immunisation timing post-chemotherapy.
  • Near-universal adherence (93-100%) to recommended re-immunisation timing post-HSCT.
  • Lower-than-expected recommendations for Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) post-chemotherapy (58.3%) and HSCT (51.7%).
  • Variations observed in varicella (VZV) post-exposure prophylaxis recommendations between PTC and SC consultants.

Conclusions:

  • High reported adherence to RCPCH re-immunisation guidelines.
  • Lower PCV recommendations may stem from a lack of specific guidelines post-chemotherapy.
  • Discrepancies in VZV prophylaxis necessitate further investigation.
Abstract

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