Impaired serum antibody response to inactivated influenza A and B vaccine in cancer patients.

The serum antibody response to vaccination with bivalent inactivated influenza vaccine containing A/Port Chalmers/1/73 (H3N2) and B/Hong Kong/5/72 antigens was assessed in 44 patients with cancer and in 27 healthy control subjects. A fourfold or greater increase in antibody titre after vaccination occurred in 16 of the 44 cancer patients and 25 of the 27 controls for the A antigen, and in 14 of the 44 cancer patients and 20 of the 27 controls for the B antigen. Patients with lymphoma, who tended to have hypogammaglobulinemia, responded less well than did patients with solid tumours. Among the latter the failure to show a fourfold or greater increase in antibody titre correlated with a poorer 18-month survival.