Basic immunization against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis within the at-risk population of oncological patients: cross-sectional data from the Berlin Metropolitan area

Abstract Aim Oncological patients are susceptible to severe infectious complications, some of which may be preventable through vaccination. Vaccination rates among oncological patients are generally considered low. While prevalence data on basic immunization for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis among the general population is available in Germany, such data remains lacking for oncological patients. With this publication, we aim to present the first data. Subject and methods In this study, we examined data collected during the EVO intervention study to assess participants’ vaccination status against DTP. Our analysis focused on the baseline data of all participants and the follow-up data of the control group, thereby excluding data affected by the intervention. We used Pearson’s chi-squared test to explore factors potentially associated with higher or lower vaccination rates (e.g. sex, diagnosis). Results Of the 370 patients included in the study, 78.9% had a solid and 21.1% a haematological tumour; 47.3% were vaccinated against tetanus, 44.9% against diphtheria and 39.7% against pertussis. Patients with haematological cancer had a higher vaccination rate against diphtheria compared to those with solid tumour (55.1% vs. 42.1%). On the other hand, women had higher rates compared to men against tetanus (53.7% vs. 40.7%) and diphtheria (50.0% vs. 39.4%). Additional positive factors included the presence of autoimmune diseases and a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. Conclusion Oncological patients seem to have significantly lower vaccination rates for diphtheria and tetanus compared to the German general population. For pertussis, on the other hand, the vaccination rate is higher than in the general population.