Immunology and Radiotherapy

Paediatric Vaccinations

The ideal measure of efficacy, infection rates, is usually not studied as a primary endpoint because this requires large sample sizes. Surrogate measures such as immunogenicity are commonly used instead. Immunogenicity refers to the immune response induced by vaccination. Increased disease activity induced by vaccination and unintentional infections induced by live-attenuated pathogens in vaccines (especially in patients on high-dose immunosuppressive drugs). Another issue of vaccine safety is whether vaccines or their constituents can actually cause autoimmune disease (AID), which will be addressed briefly.