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NPJ Vaccines
. 2025 Aug 26;10(1):203.
doi: 10.1038/s41541-025-01256-0. Boosting the influenza vaccine schedule in children with cancer: a prospective open-label study
Sung K Chiu # 1 2 , Eliska Furlong # 1 3 , Elizabeth J McKinnon 1 , Annette Fox 4 5 , Stephany Sánchez Ovando 4 5 , Louise Carolan 4 , Andrew McLean-Tooke 6 , Joyce Oommen 1 , Daniel K Yeoh 3 7 8 , Laurence C Cheung 1 2 9 , Nicholas G Gottardo 1 3 8 , Rishi S Kotecha 10 11 12 13
Affiliations
Current immunization guidelines recommend one dose of influenza vaccine for children aged ≥9 years and two doses for younger or vaccine-naïve children. However, children receiving chemotherapy have an attenuated immune response. We performed a prospective open-label study in children undergoing treatment for cancer at Perth Children's Hospital, Western Australia, to examine the safety and efficacy of a boosted influenza schedule. This comprised three vaccine doses for children <9 years of age and two doses for those ≥9 years, with each dose administered at least 4 weeks apart. The additional vaccine dose was well-tolerated with no serious adverse events reported; it also resulted in improved geometric mean antibody titres for A/H1N1 (70 to 97, p = 0.003), A/H3N2 (76 to 104, p = 0.003) and B/Washington (148 to 179, p = 0.03) strains. In summary, a boosted influenza vaccine schedule is safe and improves humoral immune response, providing a readily implementable strategy to protect children undergoing treatment for cancer.
. 2025 Aug 26;10(1):203.
doi: 10.1038/s41541-025-01256-0. Boosting the influenza vaccine schedule in children with cancer: a prospective open-label study
Sung K Chiu # 1 2 , Eliska Furlong # 1 3 , Elizabeth J McKinnon 1 , Annette Fox 4 5 , Stephany Sánchez Ovando 4 5 , Louise Carolan 4 , Andrew McLean-Tooke 6 , Joyce Oommen 1 , Daniel K Yeoh 3 7 8 , Laurence C Cheung 1 2 9 , Nicholas G Gottardo 1 3 8 , Rishi S Kotecha 10 11 12 13
Affiliations
- PMID: 40855072
- DOI: 10.1038/s41541-025-01256-0
Current immunization guidelines recommend one dose of influenza vaccine for children aged ≥9 years and two doses for younger or vaccine-naïve children. However, children receiving chemotherapy have an attenuated immune response. We performed a prospective open-label study in children undergoing treatment for cancer at Perth Children's Hospital, Western Australia, to examine the safety and efficacy of a boosted influenza schedule. This comprised three vaccine doses for children <9 years of age and two doses for those ≥9 years, with each dose administered at least 4 weeks apart. The additional vaccine dose was well-tolerated with no serious adverse events reported; it also resulted in improved geometric mean antibody titres for A/H1N1 (70 to 97, p = 0.003), A/H3N2 (76 to 104, p = 0.003) and B/Washington (148 to 179, p = 0.03) strains. In summary, a boosted influenza vaccine schedule is safe and improves humoral immune response, providing a readily implementable strategy to protect children undergoing treatment for cancer.