“Dedicated studies are needed to determine whether this case can be extrapolated to populations.”
QUICK FACTS:
- A pre-print November case report from the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Medicine, shows the experimental Pfizer–BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine caused “rapid progression of lymphomatous lesions” in a 66-year-old man with “no significant medical history.”
- “Herein, we report and discuss unexpected rapid progression of lymphomatous lesions after administration of a BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine booster in a man recently diagnosed with AITL,” the authors write.
- The man presented on September 1, 2021, “with cervical lymphadenopathies that became recently apparent during a flu-like syndrome” 6 months after receiving two doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in his left deltoid, according to the Frontiers publication.
- A PET/CT scan revealed “multiple voluminous hypermetabolic lymphadenopathies above and below the diaphragm as well as several extra-nodal hypermetabolic lesions.”
AFTER FURTHER EXAMINATION:
- Further examination “suggested a diagnosis of AngioImmunoblastic T cell Lymphoma (AITL), pattern 2,” according to the case report authors, but later findings “unambiguously established the diagnosis of AITL.”
- Fourteen days after the PET/CT scan, a booster dose of the vaccine was administered in the man’s right deltoid. “Within a few days following the vaccine booster, the patient reported noticeable swelling of right cervical lymph nodes,” according to the case report.
- Eight days after the booster vaccine administration, another PET/CT scan was performed and it found “a clear increase in number, size and metabolic activity of pre-existing lymphadenopathies at the supra- and sub-diaphragmatic level.” Not only this, but “new hypermetabolic lymphadenopathies and new hypermetabolic sites had developed since the first examination, in several different locations.”
HOW THE PATIENT WAS TREATED:
- The man was required to be treated with methylprednisolone, brentuximab vendotin, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin. Two weeks after treatment, “clinical examination indicates significant decreased swelling of cervical and axillary lymph nodes, and the overall performance status of the patient is improving.”
THE VACCINE DIDN’T PRODUCE ANTIBODIES:
- The study’s authors noted that the booster vaccine did not succeed at producing coronavirus antibodies as it is supposed to. “Importantly,” the authors wrote, “comparison of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels immediately before and 21 days after the vaccine booster did not show a significant change in the production of anti-spike antibodies.”
THE AUTHORS’ CONCLUSION:
- “This observation,” the authors conclude, “suggests that vaccination with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine might induce rapid progression of AITL. Dedicated studies are needed to determine whether this case can be extrapolated to populations of patients with AITL or other peripheral T cell lymphoma involving TFH cells.”
Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith and author of “An American Revival: Why American Christianity Is Failing & How to Fix It.“
