
"I was delighted to take part in a clinical trial as it has the potential to really help others in the future.”
This study is looking at COVID-19 in people with and without cancer and how their immune systems deals with it.
Your helps your body fight infections such as COVID-19 and diseases such as cancer.
The symptoms of COVID-19 can range from being very mild to being very severe. How your immune system finds and deals with the virus can determine what symptoms you get.
We know that having cancer can weaken the immune system. What we don’t know is the link between how the immune system deals with the virus and the symptoms of COVID-19. This is particularly so for people with cancer. So researchers want to find out more.
They will study blood samples from people who have cancer and COVID-19. And compare these to blood samples from people who:
The aims of the study are to find:
You won’t get any benefit from taking part in this study. But the information gained can help doctors treat people with COVID-19 in the future.
The following are entry conditions for this study. Talk to your doctor or the study team if you are unsure about any of these. They will be able to advise you.
Who can take part
You may be able to join this study if you:
The study team are also looking for healthy volunteers who are at least 16 years old.
For the study the team need:
You give a number of blood samples during the study.
People who have symptoms of COVID-19 give blood samples:
For people having cancer treatment you give the samples at the same time as your routine blood samples.
For people with cancer the team ask for a sample of the cancer tissue taken from when you were first diagnosed.
You see the doctor to have some blood tests when you agree to take part.
You might have some bruising or bleeding when you have the blood samples taken.
In 2021 the research team published early (interim) results for the SOAP trial.
They plan to publish more results at a later date. We hope to update this page once more results are available.
This is a summary of the results so far.
Results
This study showed that people with a were able to fight COVID-19 in the same way as people without cancer. This was so for people with
as well as those having cancer treatment.
People who had a blood cancer () varied in how well they were able to respond to the virus. For many it took much longer for them to get rid of it.
These are the results of 76 people who have taken part so far. This included:
The study team looked at whether having COVID-19 meant that there was a higher risk of the cancer getting worse. The team found that there was an effect in people with cancer who had moderate to severe symptoms of COVID-19. In these people their cancer was more likely to get worse. This is compared with those who had mild symptoms or didn’t have COVID-19.
They didn’t think this was because of the effect of COVID-19 on the cancer. It may be due to public health measures, for example:
The team say that this needs further investigation.
The researchers also wanted to know whether having cancer affected how long people had COVID-19. They took weekly swabs from the nose and back of the mouth of cancer patients with COVID-19 until the swabs showed there was no virus. They then compared this to people without cancer.
Other research shows that for people without cancer it takes 12 to 20 days for a swab to come back showing no virus.
The team found that it took more than 20 days for the swab to show no virus:
For one patient with a solid cancer their swab showed they still had the virus until 107 days after. But they never had any symptoms.
The team compared how the of people with cancer and people without cancer responded to COVID-19. They found that for people with a solid cancer it was largely similar as people without cancer. They had high levels of
to COVID-19 and were able to get rid of the virus.
For people with B cell blood cancers such as certain their immune response fell into 3 groups. Those whose immune system:
The researchers also found that once cancer patients with a solid cancer had recovered from COVID-19 their immune systems returned to working as normal.
For cancer patients with blood cancers their COVID-19 immune response had not fully resolved. What they had was similar to a long term (chronic) infection.
Conclusion
The team conclude that most people with a solid cancer will be able to fight COVID-19 in the same way as people without cancer. People with cancer develop antibodies to COVID-19.
But for people with certain types of blood cancer this isn’t so. And they might need more careful management such as closer follow up and vaccination boosters.
The team now want to look at how having a COVID-19 vaccination affects the immune system of people with cancer.
Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists () and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Dr Sheeba Irshad
Cancer Research UK
King's College London
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
GSTT Charity (REECE funds)
Freephone 0808 800 4040
"I was delighted to take part in a clinical trial as it has the potential to really help others in the future.”