Letters

Tiseo et al.¹ present a valuable contribution toward the appropriate protective vaccination of patients undergoing treatment for cancer. As they discussed in the context of our paper recently published in the Journal of Supportive Oncology, a substantial proportion of cancer patients undergoing either radiation or chemotherapy do not receive influenza vaccinations. Tiseo et al. hypothesized whether this neglect may stem at least in part from the (unwarranted) fear of an adverse effect. Therefore, the author prospectively studied how well patients tolerated the influenza vaccination by a sizable cohort of their patients undergoing chemotherapy for a range of solid malignancies, including gastrointestinal, breast, and lung cancers. A majority (58%) of these patients underwent chemotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic disease, with the rest undergoing adjuvant treatment. Despite the advanced stage of disease in most of the treated patients, the rate of vaccination reactions was negligible and the symptoms in a few patients were transient. Together, these results underscore the safety of influenza vaccination in patients with cancer, for whom complete compliance remains a laudable goal.