Acceptance, effects, and tolerability in the vaccination process against SARS-CoV-2 virus among cancer patients in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a single-center cross-sectional study

Abstract

The pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 has been the main health public issue since the end of 2019. Vaccination campaign in B&H started in April 2021 with several vaccines available. Our study aimed to evaluate acceptance, effects and tolerability of vaccines against SARS-COV 2 virus among cancer patients. We have conducted cross-sectional, observational study between 22nd October and 30th November 2021 at the Clinic of Oncology, Clinical Center University of Sarajevo.  Patients were randomly enrolled during their regular visit to the Clinic of Oncology by agreeing to fill in an individual paper questionnaire. The study included 1063 patients with malignant disease of which 681 (64.1%] were fully vaccinated patients. In study population 76.9% of patients reported that they did not have any side effects of vaccination, while only 0.5% of patients had delay in their treatment caused by side effects of vaccination. Among fully vaccinated patients there were 40 patients (3.8%] who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 after the second or booster dose of vaccine. Five patients (0.5%] were hospitalized because of COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated. Findings of our study suggest that cancer patients have higher acceptance of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 than general population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Side effects of vaccines are tolerable and do not cause major delay of specific cancer treatment. Protective effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in cancer patients presented in our study are comparable to available results of similar studies which included general population.