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November 18, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Randomized Trial of Influenza Vaccine With Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor or Placebo in Cancer Patients" Journal of Clinical Oncology (www.jco.org) (11/02) Vol. 20, No. 21, P. 4313; Ramanathan, Ramesh K.; Potter, Douglas M.; Belani, Chandra P.
A three-year, patient-blinded, placebo-controlled trial involving 133 cancer patients determined that granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor does not significantly improve patients' response to the influenza vaccine over the placebo. In fact, the treatment was shown to reduce the response to the flu vaccine when age and higher initial titers were factors. Therefore, giving the treatment to patients along with the flu vaccine has no effect, the researchers concluded.
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