Humoral response to hemagglutinin components of influenza vaccine in patients with non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma

Lymphoma disease and immunosuppressive drugs used in this case cause immunity disorders increasing the risk of severe infections, including influenza. There are opinions that patients from high-risk group are not able to respond to vaccination effectively and vaccination may contribute to exacerbation of the chronic disease. The aim was to assess humoral response to influenza vaccine in 32 patients with non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma (mean age 57.2) and 32 healthy subjects (mean age 44.3). Sixteen patients were treated with immunosupressive drugs (group A) and 11 were not subjected to this therapy (group B). Levels of antihemagglutinin (anti-HA) antibodies were assessed in sera before vaccination and after I month by hemagglutination inhibition test. Nasal and throat swabs were collected from persons with influenza symptoms during the study to detect the etiological agent of the infection. Post-vaccination anti-HA antibody levels were significantly higher than pre-vaccination values and mean fold increases (MFI) ranged from 9.3 to 12.2 in patients and from 27.6 to 44.3 in healthy subjects. The percentage of patients with the protective anti-HA antibody titers > 1:40 (protection rate) ranged after vaccination from 59.4% to 68.8%. The percentage of patients with at least a four-fold increase of anti-HA antibody titers (response rate) after vaccination ranged from 46.9% to 68.8%. There were no significant differences in antibody levels between patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs and those not treated. No respiratory infections were laboratory confirmed. This study showed that influenza vaccine is less immunogenic in patients with non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma, because it induces antibody production in lower titers in comparison to the production in healthy people. Despite this, influenza vaccine should be offered to this group, considering high MFI values and response rates as well as the protective effect for individual patients. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.