Humoral immune response after vaccination against influenza in patients with breast cancer

The aim of this pilot study was to assess a humoral response to influenza vaccine in 9 women with breast cancer. In the epidemic season 1998/1999 the patients received a single 0.5-ml dose of split influenza vaccine (Vaxigrip, Pasteur Merieux). Humoral response was measured by the hemagglutinin inhibition test in sera collected before vaccination and 1 month after vaccination. All results were compared with a control group of 19 healthy vaccinated women. The mean 'fold' increases ranged from 12.0 to 22.2 in patients with breast cancer and from 10.5 to 29.2 in healthy women. After vaccination, protection rates ranged from 44.4% to 88.9% and 63.2% to 94.7%, respectively. Response rates were between 44.4% and 88.9% in women with cancer and between 63.2% and 78.9% in the control group. After vaccination, antihaemagglutinin antibody titers were significantly higher than the prevaccination titers. During the whole study there were no statistically significant differences in humoral response between patients with breast cancer and healthy women. The results of the present study clearly show that women with breast cancer, including those undergoing chemotherapy, were able to develop a good serological response to influenza vaccine.

Pretreatment concentrations of breast carcinoma antigen (CA 15.3) and mucin-like carcinoma-associated antigen in patients with carcinoma of the breast

Pretreatment serum concentrations of breast carcinoma antigen (CA 15.3) and mucin-like carcinoma-associated antigen (MCA) were determined in 129 patients with breast carcinoma. Concentrations of both markers were within the normal range in patients with Stage I disease. Concentrations of CA 15.3 were elevated (greater than 40 U/ml) in 3, 11 and 48%, those of MCA (greater than 17 U/ml) in 11, 18 and 52%, and those of one or the other marker in 11, 18 and 58% of the patients with Stage II, III and IV disease, respectively. The elevation of either marker roughly paralleled the size of the tumor being normal in the patients with localized cancer, slightly elevated in a small proportion of the patients with locoregional cancer, and moderately to markedly elevated in half of the patients with distant metastases. Correlation between serum concentrations of CA 15.3 and MCA was highly significant (p less than 0.0001). It is concluded that the markers were equally sensitive and that an elevated serum level was a useful adjunct for staging, implying systemic disease.