The problem: COVID-19’s impact on people with lung cancer
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the lung cancer community in a unique way. Since people with lung cancer may already have weakened immune systems or lung function, they may be more at risk for developing severe illness from COVID-19. We also do not know if having cancer could affect someone’s immune response to COVID-19 vaccines, or how likely they may be to get COVID-19 in the future.
SeroNet (U54) initiative
GO2 for Lung Cancer has been awarded a 5-year grant from the National Cancer Institute as part of its Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet) initiative. This project seeks to uncover whether people with lung cancer, who are uniquely at risk for worse outcomes from COVID-19, have a different antibody response to the virus (SARS-CoV-2) compared to healthy individuals.
Studying antibody response in people with lung cancer
The Mt. Sinai School of Medicine-led group will analyze blood samples to determine lung cancer patients’ antibody response when they contract COVID-19 and when they receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers will also study possible changes in lung tumor cells and noncancerous lung cells in lung cancer patients who have COVID-19. The project will study 1,000 patients with lung cancer and 1,000 patients without lung cancer to determine if there are differences in antibody responses related to age, gender, tobacco history, and race or ethnicity.
“Our overall hypothesis is that lung cancer patients have a weaker antibody response to COVID-19 and that their lung tissue and tumor cells may play a role in their body’s response to infection, which could explain the aggressive course and high fatality rate that we’ve seen,” said Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, Executive Director of the Center for Thoracic Oncology at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and co-primary investigator of the lung cancer project. “Our U54 Serologic Center will determine whether COVID-19 infection or vaccines will give similar antibody responses in patients with lung cancer compared to patients without lung cancer.”
Early findings from this study suggest that most lung cancer patients do show immunity benefits from vaccination compared to healthy control participants. A small but significant portion of patients did not show an antibody response to vaccination.
GO2 for Lung Cancer’s involvement
The 5-year grant, “Vulnerability of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Lung Cancer Based on Serological Antibody Analyses,” is being led by a multi-institutional team consisting of experts in thoracic oncology, virology, and immunology. As part of this effort, GO2 for Lung Cancer is working with researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine to help identify study participants representing special lung cancer populations of interest, including under-represented communities, across its vast national network of Centers of Excellence.
Dr. Hirsch and Adolfo García-Sastre, PhD, Director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at Mount Sinai, are primary investigators of the lung cancer project and will oversee the center, which also includes researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern, University of Colorado, University of Maryland, and Vanderbilt University. Jennifer C. King, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer for GO2 for Lung Cancer at the time of the study, served on the steering committee.