Pfizer Vaccine/Ibrutinib

[shellsb]

Hi everyone. Has anyone on Ibruitinib had the Pfizer vaccine and did any of you produce an antibody response to one or both? Just asking as I have seen a couple of people mention on another CLL site that Ibrutinib might affect the vaccine efficacy.

Just asking for my husband. He has been on ibrutinib for 2-years which is working really well. He has had one vaccine, but not both yet. We have not checked for antibodies yet as didn’t think there was much point until after his second.

Thank you!

Shelley

[Teegolf47]

I have been on Ibrutinib for 7 1/2 years and had the Pfizer vaccine. I participated in the LLS antibody study and it showed no response to the vaccine. You are correct in not checking until sometime after the second shot.

Terry

[shellsb in reply to Teegolf47]

Thanks Terry. It’s so worrying. My husband actually had Covid in January and was in hospital for 3.5 weeks. Very scary times but he made it through. Don’t want to go through that again! Take care.

[Teagle47 in reply to shellsb]

Shellsb, They are learning more and more about COVID treatment. Right now the best thing you can do if you test positive is to get the monoclonal antibody cocktails as soon as you can. I know several people who got COVID, and got the cocktails within 3 days and recovered very quickly (within a week with no hospital stay). So that is our best bet right now. In the future my guess is that there will be a specialized antibody treatment that we CLL patients can take like a Flu shot and will protect is prophylactically. That type of treatment does not care if you are immune compromised or not.Terry

[shellsb in reply to Teagle47]

Thanks Terry. I’m not sure they are giving the monoclonal antibody treatment here in the UK as yet as part of the Covid treatment. I think it may have been in trial though. However my husband was given the Monoclonal treatment in hospital as part of a recovery trial. However I believe you have to get it within 10-days of getting Covid for it to prevent serious disease and by the time my hubby was given it, he already had Covid pneumonitis so he’s not sure if it did anything. He does have antibodies at the moment from the Covid and possibly the Mabs treatment but just not sure how long these will last. Thanks for all your helpful advice - I really do appreciate it!

[thompsonellen]

I've been in treatment for 5 years, and on ibrutinib for about 4. I did produce antibodies. I got tested 2 weeks after the second shot. I got the order from OSU. I think Dr. Byrd is collecting data, but as he said in an article someone linked to recently, just because we have or don't have antibodies, we still don't know how we will react to exposure. He also said we should get the jabs anyway.

[Rt2000]

There have been many comments here about responses to the vaccine. Some have a response, some not. I have been on ibrutinib for 4 years and did the test thru the LLS study 4 weeks after my second Pfizer shot and it was positive. My number wasn’t that high (19.24), but no one knows what that means anyway. Hopefully the study will give us some insight. Until community infections get very low, I will continue to take precautions, but don’t isolate myself.

[bennevisplace]

The best study we have to date showed a low rate of antibody response to vaccine in CLL patients being treated with Ibrutinib hematology.org/newsroom/pre...

That said, if your husband has had Covid in January, two doses of vaccine should give his immune system a better chance of developing antibodies and of priming his T cells, to guard against reinfection.

[BCpsych]

I've been in a clinical trial that started with ibrutinib, then added venetoclax, then discontinued venetoclax after one year. At that point, I was MRD negative (essentially, in remission). I've continued on ibrutinib, although on a very reduced dose (140 mg every other day) because of AFib side effects. This coming July will make 4 years of taking ibrutinib. I had the two Pfizer doses in January/February and recently signed up for the LLS study. My antibody test result was "> 250.00", so my body apparently has responded to some degree. As a previous reply stated, we have no idea whether that response level is protective or not, but ibrutinib didn't prevent some response in my case. I'm still following recommended precautions and behaving as if I'm not protected.

Best of luck to you and your husband.