David Cohn, MD, on Clinician Awareness About the COVID-19 Vaccine in Patients With Cancer

CancerNetwork® was joined by David Cohn, MD, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Hospital, to discuss what clinicians treating patients with cancer should know about in regard to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine and the effects in their patients.

Multiple stakeholders in the cancer community as well as The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have indicated that patients on active cancer therapy are amongst those with a critical need for immunization against the COVID-19 virus. In January 2021, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network released guidance regarding vaccinations in patients with cancer.

“Patients who are on active treatment for their cancer—meaning chemotherapy, radiation therapy, cellular therapy, or immunotherapy–are all at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and are at increased risk of having severe complications or death due to COVID-19 were they to become infected,” Cohn said in the interview. “It’s critically important that all of our patients with cancer who are on active therapy are counseled about the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination and to be aware of [its] side effects. In our practice, we encourage patients to get vaccinated.”

In the interview, Cohn discussed adverse effects of the vaccine as well as individual state mandates on vaccine prioritization.

This segment comes from the CancerNetwork® portion of the MJH Life Sciences™ Medical World News®, airing daily on all MJH Life Sciences™ channels.