@article{HempelMolnarRobertetal.2021, author = {Hempel, Louisa and Molnar, Jakob and Robert, Sebastian and Veloso, Julia and Trepotec, Zeljka and Englisch, Sofie and Weinzierl, Philip and Schick, Cordula and Milani, Valeria and Schweneker, Katrin and Fleischmann, Bastian and Scheiber, Josef and Gandorfer, Beate and Kleespies, Axel and Hempel, Dirk and Riedmann, Kristina and Piehler, Armin}, title = {Rare SARS-CoV-2 antibody development in cancer patients}, series = {Seminars in Oncology}, volume = {48}, journal = {Seminars in Oncology}, number = {2}, pages = {160 -- 165}, year = {2021}, abstract = {SARS-CoV-2 antibody development and immunity will be crucial for the further course of the pandemic. Until now, it has been assumed that patients who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 will develop antibodies as has been the case with other coronaviruses, like MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV. In the present study, we analyzed the development of antibodies in 77 patients with an oncologic diagnosis 26 days after positive RT-qPCR testing for SARS-CoV2. RT-qPCR and anti-SARS-CoV2-antibody methods from BGI (MGIEasy Magnetic Beads Virus DNA/RNA Extraction Kit) and Roche (Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay) were used, respectively, according to the manufacturers' specifications. Surprisingly, antibody development was detected in only 6 of 77 individuals with a confirmed history of COVID-19. Despite multiple testing, the remaining patients did not show measurable antibody concentrations in subsequent tests. These results undermine the previous hypothesis that SARS-CoV2 infections are regularly associated with antibody development and cast doubt on the provided immunity to COVID-19. Understanding the adaptive and humoral response to SARS-CoV2 will play a key role in vaccine development and gaining further knowledge on the pathogenesis.}, language = {en} }