SUMMARY

Infection prevention is of major importance in patients with haematological malignancies, who are immunocompromised because of disease-related and therapy-related factors. However, in patients receiving anti-B-cell therapies, such as rituximab or ibrutinib (an irreversible BTK inhibitor), measures for infection prevention are hardly studied. In this review we considered vaccine response in patients receiving rituximab treatment and we investigated if an adequate vaccine response can be achieved in patients treated with ibrutinib. For rituximab, no protective titers are obtained in patients with haematological malignancies, but in rheumatoid arthritis 30–50% of patients achieve protective titres. Vaccine response following ibrutinib seems low but it is insufficiently studied to make evidence based recommendations.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2018;9(3):113–7)