Immunogenicity and Safety of Pneumococcal Vaccination in Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Physicians will be informed by mail and pocket cards with all necessary information about the study, in particular eligibility criteria. Patients currently receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors will be approached by their treating physicians in case of an already scheduled vaccination against S. pneumonia. If a patient agrees to participate in the study and to sign an informed consent form, basic data on demographics, underlying disease, comorbidities, and irAE will be obtained from the electronic health record and entered into the eCRF.

Pneumococcal antibody titers will be drawn at baseline and after 30 days. We will actively follow-up on study patients for four months after enrolment and screen health records of the enrolled patients after four months to record occurrence of irAE.

A blood sample (9 ml) will be drawn before vaccination. Vaccination will either be performed by the treating physician or by a general practitioner. After 30 days, a second blood sample will be taken during an already planned visit at the (outpatient) clinic. Titer assessment will be performed along STIKO recommendations for immunocompromised patients.

All samples for ELISA and OPA titer determination will be stored frozen at Department I for Internal Medicine and titers will be analyzed in batch at the end of this study. All therapies and diagnostics including vaccinations will be administered solely as part of clinical routine and as recommended by appropriate guidelines (RKI STIKO recommendations).