Latest News
These are CLL Ireland’s latest news posts from Facebook – but make sure to visit our CLL Ireland Facebook page for older posts.
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/83d80d58-3643-11eb-9999-78711a047ec4
Great news! I’m near the front of the queue for the vaccine
www.thetimes.co.uk
The end of the misery is in sight. The tedium of the same place and the same faces could soon be at an end. No more permanent working from home (or is it living at work?), hunched over a laptop in aFellow CLL patient Seán O'Neil, UK journalist receives his covid vaccine today.
twitter.com/CllIreland/status/1349664808916934656?s=19
twitter.com
“CLL patients are 7th on the priorty list to receive the vaccine in Ireland It's different in the UK as blood cancer patients were moved higher on the list as they are extremely high risk to COVID @TimesONeill writes about receiving it today as a CLL patient. @DonnellyStephen t.co/5nLZlE1I...This webinar focuses on vaccines for CLL patients.
twitter.com/LymphomaAction/status/1348209221851095040?s=09
twitter.com
“Our next webinar with @LeukaemiaCareUK, on Friday 15 January at 2pm, will focus on the new COVID-19 vaccines and suitability for people with #BloodCancer. Register and submit your questions here > t.co/URwqXbTL06 #Lymphoma #Leukaemia”www.facebook.com/7851693875/posts/10158411377783876/
Cancer patients urged to reach out for support as third wave causes increased anxiety
fal.cn
The Irish Cancer Society says it is receiving increasingly distressed calls to its Support Line in the new wave of the pandemic.www.facebook.com/groups/184736000049710
This is the link to our new Group Chat if anyone interested in joining, this is a private group for CLL patients, their families and anyone affected by this condition. It is a safe place to chat and share resources.
As the Covid vaccine is rolled out, CLL patients are 7th on the list.
www.gov.ie/en/publication/39038-provisional-vaccine-allocation-groups/
We are advocating and hoping as it becomes more available blood cancer patients will be moved up this list.
In the meantime top CLL specialists are sharing their advice for CLL patients and one of them is leading US based expert Dr Rick Furman.
Dr. Furman is Director of the CLL Research Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and a member of the Lymphoma/Myeloma Service in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. His area of focus is on the development of non-chemotherapeutic approaches to treating CLL, and has played an integral part in the development of ibrutinib and idelalisib.
weillcornell.org/rrfurman
Here is an email with some points that our community should consider but don't forget to discuss your own situation with your haematology team.
From: Rick Furman
Date: December 31, 2020
Subject: [CLLSLL] COVID-19 Vaccinations
I have been inundated with emails regarding questions of whether to take the vaccines or not. I really do believe that the vaccines offer the best means currently for helping reduce the risks of becoming severely ill from COVID-19. I hope this post will help allay fears.
-
1.While these vaccines have been developed and approved quicker than any vaccine in history, and have used novel technologies, we do not have any reason at this time to question their safety. The RNA vaccine technology (more later) has been used for years in animal vaccines, just not human vaccines, and are extremely well studied. They really represent a major step forward in generating vaccines rapidly. They really are only limited by the need for cold temperatures for storage.
2.While the timelines for these vaccines have been very short, these vaccines are studied in large number of patients. (Pfizer: 40,000 in total in the pivotal trial: 20,000 vaccine vs 20,000 placebo; Moderna: 30,000 in total in the pivotal trial: 15,000 vaccine vs 15,000 placebo.) Most of our oncology drugs are approved using studies of 150-300 patients.
3.The RNA vaccines use RNA encapsulated in a lipid vesicle to deliver it to cells where it is taken up and transcribed (processed) like normal RNA into a protein that is placed on the surface of the cell for the immune system to see and recognized as foreign. This really replicates what the virus itself does. There is no means for the RNA to be changed into DNA, make it into the nucleus, or enter the cell's normal DNA. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are RNA vaccines.
4.The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, approved this past week in the United Kingdom is different in that it uses a replication deficient virus. The virus infects cells and places its immunogenic proteins on the surface of cells for the immune system to react to. Even though this is not a killed virus vaccine, this vaccine should still be safe from a CLL perspective. The one issue with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is that there were some errors in the conduct of the clinical trial which might make the data suspect. One group of patients received a half-dose of vaccine. Interesting, these patients seem to be better protected when looking at the numbers. There are several theoretical reasons why this might occur, but it is counterintuitive. There were some differences in spacing the vaccine doses, which may also explain some of the benefit. The efficacy in the majority of the patients is lower, approximately 60%. What we are missing are the data with statistics to assess whether these are meaningful differences or possibly due to chance.
5.We have no reason to believe there is any advantage of the Pfizer/BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine over the other. Both vaccines did numerically very close (which is very reassuring) and none of the differences in outcomes is statistically meaningful.
6.We currently do not have efficacy or safety data for these vaccines in patients with CLL. With this being said, we do not have any reason to expect the safety to be different in patients with CLL. While we do have theoretical reasons for why the vaccine might be less effective, and therefore alter a risk-benefit assessment, these vaccines are very immunogenic and will hopefully be equally efficacious in patients with CLL. We also know had dangerous COVID-19 infection is and therefore any steps that could be taken to lessen the risk of morbidity or mortality is critical.
7.We should also remember that the vaccines were shown to reduce illness, but this does not mean that patients cannot get infected and still be contagious. The vaccines may lessen the duration of viral shedding, and therefore risk of spreading the virus, but may not limit it altogether. As such, people previously infected and people who have been vaccinated, still need to follow all of the safety protocols until "masks off" if declared.
8.Many patients are on different treatments during this period. We don't know whether any of these treatments will impair the immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine. While we have some anecdotal evidence of BTK inhibitors helping prevent severe COVID-19 illness, the clinical trial data are still emerging. The acalabrutinib trial in COVID-19 (non-CLL patients) did not show a benefit, but there were some issues with that trial that might not make it generalizable to everyone. I suspect that BTK inhibitors do help and have been continuing my patients on them. With regard to the vaccine, any temporary interruption will likely not be sufficient to make a difference and I would recommend just continuing the inhibitor. I am also recommending the same for the PI3K inhibitors and venetoclax. Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies would be different, and it might make sense to defer vaccination until after therapy is completed if there is an option.
-
I hope this helps everyone. I do encourage everyone given an opportunity to accept the vaccine. Additionally, I do encourage everyone to still practice mask wearing and safety protocols.
-
Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone. I hope we will be able to resume some normalcy this coming year.
Stay Safe.
Rick Furman, MD
To all in our CLL community tonight, we wish you brighter, happy, healthy 2021 and we look forward to a time when we can all meet again.
Some interesting information on long term Ibrutinib therapy from our friends in patient power.
patientpower.info/the-long-term-use-of-ibrutinib-for-cll
The Long-Term Use of Ibrutinib for CLL
patientpower.info
Many chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients have been on ibrutinib for years, but what do we know about the effects of long-term use?ASH was virtual this year and CLL remains a hot topic with further novel therapies emerging to add to the arsenal:
www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/ashexpertroundtablecll/90135
CLL at ASH 2020: The CAPTIVATE trial
Episode one of a video roundtable with Susan O'Brien, MD, Jennifer Brown, MD, and Anthony Mato, MD
Uncovering the Value of Real-World Data for Blood Cancer
Published News