Clinical studies examine cancer treatments and vaccine responses in pediatric patients

A multicenter phase 1/2 study conducted across 18 hospitals in the USA and Canada investigated the tolerability of combining bortezomib and vorinostat with a chemotherapy backbone for infants with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The study focused on patients aged one year or younger, including those with KMT2A rearranged leukaemia.

Separately, a prospective cohort study in Australia evaluated the immune response to COVID-19 vaccination in children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 with solid or hematological cancers. The research found that after two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine, 66% of patients with available samples showed a positive neutralizing antibody response, which increased to 80% after three doses. T-cell responses also showed improvement following the third dose.