A 2025 observational analysis by MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Florida of nearly 1,000 advanced cancer patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapy found that patients who received a Pfizer or Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine within 100 days of starting treatment had substantially longer survival; specifically, vaccinated lung cancer patients were nearly twice as likely to be alive three years after beginning cancer treatment compared with unvaccinated patients.
October 22, 2025
high
study_finding
Retrospective observational analysis of patient records comparing outcomes for those who did and did not receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines around start of checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
A 2019â2023 retrospective analysis of medical records from more than 1,000 patients treated for advanced skin and lung cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center found that patients who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy had significantly longer overall survival; for patients with advanced lung cancer, median survival was 37.3 months for vaccinated patients versus 20.6 months for unvaccinated patients.
December 31, 2023
high
temporal
Retrospective medical-record analysis covering patient treatments from 2019 through 2023 at MD Anderson Cancer Center; comparison between patients who did and did not receive a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting checkpoint inhibitor therapy.