INTRODUCTION: Three doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines have been recommended for cancer patients to reduce the risk of severe disease. Anti-neoplastic treatment, such as chemotherapy, may affect long-term vaccine immunogenicity. METHOD: Patients with solid or haematological cancer were recruited from 2 hospitals between July 2021 and March 2022. Humoral response was evaluated using GenScript cPASS surrogate virus neutralisation assays. Clinical outcomes were obtained from medical records and national mandatory-reporting databases. RESULTS: A total of 273 patients were recruited, with 40 having haematological malignancies and the rest solid tumours. Among the participants, 204 (74.7%) were receiving active cancer therapy, including 98 (35.9%) undergoing systemic chemotherapy and the rest targeted therapy or immunotherapy. All patients were seronegative at baseline. Seroconversion rates after receiving 1, 2 and 3 doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination were 35.2%, 79.4% and 92.4%, respectively. After 3 doses, patients on active treatment for haematological malignancies had lower antibodies (57.3%±46.2) when compared to patients on immunotherapy (94.1%±9.56, P<0.05) and chemotherapy (92.8%±18.1, P<0.05). SARS-CoV-2 infection was reported in 77 (28.2%) patients, of which 18 were severe. No patient receiving a third dose within 90 days of the second dose experienced severe infection. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates the benefit of early administration of the third dose among cancer patients.
Humans ; SARS-CoV-2 ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Treatment Outcome ; Neoplasms/drug therapy* ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Vaccination ; RNA, Messenger ; Antibodies, Viral ; Immunogenicity, Vaccine

Introduction: This study aims to describe the content of several pre-independence medical journals published in British Malaya. Methods: The content of five journals were retrieved from National Library of Singapore e-resources and print collection of the Reference Library, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The content of these journals was classified and descriptive analysis performed. Results: The five journals identified were Journal of the Straits Medical Association, Journal of the Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association, Malaya Medical Journal, Malayan Medical Journal and Journal of the Malaya Branch of the British Medical Association (new series). A total of 81 issues with 873 articles were retrieved. Almost one-third of articles were concerned with these topics: malaria, mosquito control, beri-beri, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, helminthiasis, leprosy and cholera. One-fifth of the articles were case reports and 95% of the articles were written by single authors. Discussion The content of these journals is a good resource for those who are interested in the history of medicine – it provided substantial details on the state of public health and chronicled the medical writings of medical workers in British Malaya. It illustrates well the introduction of Western medicine to tackle health problems that arose from the interplay of immigration, poor environmental sanitation and economic exploitation.
History of Medicine