RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Spontaneous tumor regression following COVID-19 vaccination
JF Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
JO J Immunother Cancer
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e004371
DO 10.1136/jitc-2021-004371
VO 10
IS 3
A1 Luana Guimaraes de Sousa
A1 Daniel J McGrail
A1 Kaiyi Li
A1 Mario L Marques-Piubelli
A1 Cipriano Gonzalez
A1 Hui Dai
A1 Sammy Ferri-Borgogno
A1 Myrna Godoy
A1 Jared Burks
A1 Shiaw-Yih Lin
A1 Diana Bell
A1 Renata Ferrarotto
YR 2022
UL http://jitc.bmj.com/content/10/3/e004371.abstract
AB Vaccination against COVID-19 is critical for immuno-compromised individuals, including patients with cancer. Systemic reactogenicity, a manifestation of the innate immune response to vaccines, occurs in up to 69% of patients following vaccination with RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. Tumor regression can occur following an intense immune-inflammatory response and novel strategies to treat cancer rely on manipulating the host immune system. Here, we report spontaneous regression of metastatic salivary gland myoepithelial carcinoma in a patient who experienced grade 3 systemic reactogenicity, following vaccination with the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine. Histological and immunophenotypic inspection of the postvaccination lung biopsy specimens showed a massive inflammatory infiltrate with scant embedded tumor clusters (<5%). Highly multiplexed imaging mass cytometry showed that the postvaccination lung metastasis samples had remarkable immune cell infiltration, including CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, natural killer cells, B cells, and dendritic cells, which contrasted with very low levels of these cells in the prevaccination primary tumor and lung metastasis samples. CT scans obtained 3, 6, and 9 months after the second vaccine dose demonstrated persistent tumor shrinkage (50%, 67%, and 73% reduction, respectively), suggesting that vaccination stimulated anticancer immunity. Insight: This case suggests that the mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine stimulated anticancer immunity and tumor regression.