Study Finds That COVID-19 Infection and Vaccines Are Causing Blood Cancer Patients to Relapse Faster!
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Apr 24, 2025 3 hours, 9 minutes ago
Medical News: In a groundbreaking study out of Argentina, researchers have uncovered surprising evidence that exposure to the COVID-19 virus—whether through natural infection or vaccination—may have significantly altered key immune cells in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. Chronic myelogenous leukemia, also known as chronic myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is a form of leukemia characterized by the increased and unregulated growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow and the accumulation of these cells in the blood.
Study Finds That COVID-19 Infection and Vaccines Are Causing Blood Cancer
Patients to Relapse Faster!
These changes could influence outcomes for patients attempting to live without continuous medication, a state known as treatment-free remission (TFR).
Scientists from several esteemed institutions in Buenos Aires collaborated on the research, including the Centro de Investigaciones Oncológicas–Fundación Cáncer (FUCA), Fundación para Combatir la Leucemia (FUNDALEU), Hospital José María Ramos Mejía, Instituto de Genética, Ecología y Evolución de Buenos Aires (IEGEBA), and Instituto Alexander Fleming. Their work, part of the Argentina Stop Trial (AST), focused on the behavior of natural killer (NK) cells—a type of immune cell crucial for controlling cancer—before and after the emergence of COVID-19.
This
Medical News report delves into how the pandemic has reshaped immune profiles in ways that could affect the future of leukemia treatment strategies.
The Goal to Live Without Drugs
CML, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, is now often managed successfully with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). For patients who reach a deep molecular response (DMR), there's hope for stopping treatment altogether. Achieving TFR has become a therapeutic dream—but not all patients maintain remission after halting their medications.
NK cells, part of the body’s first line of defense, are believed to play a critical role in keeping the cancer at bay once drug therapy stops. In 2019, before COVID swept the globe, researchers began studying immune profiles in CML patients ready to attempt TFR. They enrolled 46 patients in the first phase of the trial (AST I) and found that those who did not relapse had more “memory-like” NK cells—specifically, a subpopulation known for being especially vigilant and aggressive in attacking threats.
Three years later, between 2022 and 2023, they recruited a second group of 35 patients (AST II), using the same clinical criteria. This time, though, things looked different.
COVID-19 Changed the Rules
Despite near-identical medical backgrounds, the immune systems of patients in AST II were strikingly dissimilar to those from the pre-pandemic cohort. NK cells from the second group s
howed signs of increased activity but reduced maturity. In particular, there were:
-Fewer overall NK cells
-Lower levels of receptors CD16 and CD57 (linked to cell maturity)
-Elevated expression of NKp44, NKp46, and PD-1 (indicators of heightened immune activation)
What’s more, although the newer group had more of the memory-like NK cells previously linked to protection, these cells didn’t seem to prevent relapses. In AST II, 100% of relapses occurred within four months of stopping treatment—a much faster timeline than in the earlier group.
The only obvious difference between the two cohorts? COVID exposure.
Serum analysis showed that nearly all AST II patients had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, indicating prior exposure. In contrast, none of the AST I patients had been infected, as their samples were collected before the pandemic began.
COVID-19 and the Immune System’s Double-Edged Sword
This finding builds on a growing body of global research showing that COVID-19 dramatically impacts the immune system. NK cells in COVID-19 patients often become less effective, and markers like PD-1 rise—signaling immune exhaustion. Yet, paradoxically, the virus also seems to stimulate the emergence of memory-like NK cells, similar to what is seen in people with chronic cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections.
In vaccinated individuals who never caught COVID, memory-like NK cells still expand, suggesting that both the virus and the vaccine can reshape immunity. The current study supports this idea, as AST II patients had elevated levels of these cells, despite no significant differences in CMV antibody levels between the two groups.
Researchers suspect that either natural infection, vaccination, or both could be responsible for these immunological shifts. The problem is, despite their abundance, these NK cells in AST II patients failed to prevent early relapse—possibly because they were too exhausted or not targeting the correct signals from residual leukemia cells.
A Complex Puzzle Still Missing Pieces
The findings reveal how deeply the pandemic has affected even areas of medicine seemingly unrelated to COVID. The immune system doesn’t compartmentalize threats—it evolves with every challenge, and that can have unintended consequences. For CML patients, the heightened presence of memory-like NK cells, once seen as a good sign, may not mean much if those cells are overworked or altered by recent viral battles.
Further complicating things, the study couldn’t separate the effects of natural COVID infection from vaccination, nor did it assess different vaccine types. Future studies are needed to tease apart these variables.
Nonetheless, the implications are clear: clinical outcomes cannot be viewed in isolation from the broader immunological environment—especially in a post-pandemic world.
Final Thoughts
This research not only calls attention to how SARS-CoV-2 may be shaping immune responses in cancer patients, but also challenges previously held assumptions about what constitutes a protective immune profile in CML. The once-celebrated memory-like NK cells might not tell the full story in patients who have lived through a global viral crisis.
Going forward, oncologists and immunologists will need to rethink biomarkers and treatment strategies for patients attempting TFR. The immune system's history—its exposures, infections, and vaccinations—will likely play a growing role in guiding individualized care. It is also essential that future discontinuation trials account for pandemic-related immune alterations to avoid drawing misleading conclusions.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Cells
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/14/9/628
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