There has been a huge range of COVID-19 vaccines rolled out around the world, but arguably little understanding of which countries are using which vaccines for their cancer patients and registered healthcare professionals.

A team of researchers from the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences, led by Professor Richard Sullivan, wanted to investigate whether cancer patients were being prioritised with vaccine rollout, and whether most countries had an adequate supply of vaccines.

Using members of the COVID-19 and Cancer Global Taskforce – which began its work at the start of the pandemic - the team rapidly assessed a range of countries, from high income countries such as New Zealand and the UK, to lower income countries such as Zambia, and even countries with immense conflict, such as Syria.

Whist most countries (67%) were found to have national vaccination strategies, these were often not similar. There were also significant disparities in access to the vaccines, and countries at differing stages of vaccinating their cancer populations.

IN addition, there was a lack of insight into how well each vaccine works for cancer patients, a finding that corroborates trial results from Dr Sheeba Irshad, also from the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences, where it was shown that more than half of cancer patients receiving a single dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine were left with little protection against the virus.

The researchers note that their next steps are to secure funding to conduct clinical-biological studies and build their Taskforce into a medium-term research platform to study the impact of the pandemic, recovery, and future resilience, with regards to cancer.

Read the full paper published in the Lancet Oncology.