Has anyone got any knowledge about Immunizations for Patients who have had HL, Treatment. My son is now a practicing dentist, after HL there is a big concern about this. When he was a child we had him Immunizations for all the normal once. (MMR etc...)

Hi Background : aged 23 was Diag with HL 4B in July 2010 (Day after he graduated as a Dentist)

Started his Chemo (OEPA/COPP) in Aug 2010, Finished his Chemo on the 5th Jan 2011 and RT for two week which ended on 8th March 2011. He had the normal after-effects of Chemo and RT.

Once the Chemo was over PET Scan showed that the treatment was going in the right direction. So they moved on to RT.

Pet Scan performed in Aug 2011 showed a significant amount of brown fat but the righ hilar node showed similar appearance to the scan 3 months perviously. His Oncologist doubt's that he is dealing with lymphoma as there has been no increase in SUV or size of the lesion.

So let him start work as a dentist.

The CDC normally keeps a running recommendation on certain at-risk patients with regard to immunizations etc. The thing is, if he was receiving anti-cancer treatment (specifically something like rituxan) and did have lymphoma, those are two things that would make him immunocompromised and he would probably be told not to receive any live vaccines. But if he's in remission, he wouldn't be considered to be immunocompromised, and wouldn't by that aspect be considered at risk. If I were him I would put a call into either the LLS or perhaps a better option, the folks at lymphoma.org, the lymphoma research foundation, namely because their helpline is the best --- 800-500-9976.

Hi Ross,

Thank you for this post,we are in the UK. The last anti-cancer drug he received was in Jan 2011 they did not give him rituxan.

He was on a German Trial OEPA/COPP http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/suppl_5/S115.full.pdf.

The doctors will not say that he is in remission until the next scan which is at the end of Nov.

I will call the lymphoma research foundation from the UK and have a quick chat with them.

Once again Thank you.

JP

I have never heard of that trial. But very clever to remove the procarbazine from the male regimen and replace it with etoposide. I hope that the goal of that swap was successful for your son and he has not been rendered sterile, as procarbazine can so easily do.

Here's a link to the CDC's Contraindications and Precautions to Commonly Used Vaccines, it does make note in a couple instances of immunocompromised patients being an issue, although that doesn't much seem to apply to your son- unless of course he's not in remission.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/vac-admin/contraindications-vacc.htm

Thank you Ross, are you an MD?

No. I've worked within the lymphoma community for about three years, but am not a health professional.