Author: Lynda Williams
medwireNews: Tixagevimab and cilgavimab immunoprophylaxis may help protect patients with haematological malignancies from COVID-19 infection and hospitalisation, suggests a research letter published in JAMA Oncology.
The cohort study reports the outcomes of 204 patients who were eligible for immunoprophylaxis with the two fully human SARS-CoV-2-neutralising monoclonal antibodies due to an increased risk of inadequate response to COVID-19 vaccination.
The patients were enrolled between June and September 2022 and followed-up for 6 months, during which time Omicron variants were prevalent in Italy, write Marco Salvini (ASST Sette Laghi, Varese, Italy) and co-authors.
Overall, 130 patients were given a single pre-exposure prophylactic dose of tixageviamb 150 mg and cilgavimab 150 mg, while 74 patients did not receive the treatment.
The majority of patients in the treatment and control arms had lymphoproliferative disorders or multiple myeloma (77 vs 81%), followed by myeloproliferative neoplasms (19 vs 12%) and acute leukaemia (4 vs 7%). Most patients in the two groups were undergoing active treatment (95 vs 92%), with immunotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy, autologous stem cell transplantation or other treatments.