Is COVID-19 Vaccination Beneficial for Tumor Patients: A Cross-Sectional Investigation in China

Tumor patients take a high risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, high incidence of serious events, poor prognosis and high mortality in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, but there is still lack of supporting evidence that the COVID-19 vaccination is beneficial for tumor patients to encourage them to receive the vaccination.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shantou, China and questionnaires were collected in the hospitals from February 13, 2023 to April 23, 2023. Using the receiving of COVID-19 vaccination as the primary outcome, descriptive, univariate and multivariate analyses were generated.

161 out of 241 patients (66.80%) had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 61.00% patients had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Patients with general symptoms (p = 0.013) and others (p = 0.022) had a higher proportion of nonvaccinated patients than vaccinated ones. In the multivariate analysis, age (aOR = 0.971, 95% CI = 0.946-0.997, p = 0.031), the cognition of vaccines' impact on tumor treatment (aOR = 4.475, 95% CI = 1.772-11.299, p = 0.002), time since tumor diagnosis (aOR = 4.586, 95% CI = 2.122-9.909, p < 0.001) were identified as factors of COVID-19 vaccination uptake.

COVID-19 vaccination in China offers numerous advantages for tumor patients, helping to alleviate symptoms following infection and potentially decreasing the chances of tumor metastasis and recurrence.