the principal researchers include:
• dr. arianne buchan, an infectious disease specialist and researcher at the ottawa hospital, will lead a $2.1 million national study to determine how well covid-19 vaccines work in people with blood cancer.
buchan is recruiting people with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood cancers who have undergone stem cell transplants.
“our study will provide data to help understand how our patients respond to covid-19 vaccines and will help us protect them from infection,” said buchan, an assistant professor at the university of ottawa.
• dr. glenwood goss, an oncologist and researcher at the ottawa hospital, will lead a $1.9 million study that will enrol 300 cancer patients in ottawa and vancouver, along with 150 healthy adults as a control group.
the study, goss said, will examine whether cancer patients — people with lung, breast, prostate and colon cancer — can mount a sufficient immune response following a covid-19 vaccination.
more than two million canadians are currently living with cancer.
as part of the study, blood samples will be collected from participants to measure vaccine-induced immune responses and antibody production.