Pneumococcal Conjugated Vaccine 13 (PCV13) for Patients With Multiple Myeloma (MM)

Multiple myeloma patients often get serious infections that can be deadly. A British study looked at newly diagnosed patients and found that bacterial infections were the main cause of death in the first 60 days, mostly from pneumonia (66%) and blood poisoning (23%). The most common bacteria causing these infections were pneumococcus, staph, and E. coli. Medical experts recommend that multiple myeloma patients get pneumonia vaccines. However, some studies show these vaccines don't work well in these patients, raising questions about whether they're really helpful. It's also unclear if patients need one shot or multiple shots like other high-risk patients. This study at National Taiwan University Hospital will randomly give multiple myeloma patients either one or two doses of the 13-valent pneumonia vaccine. Researchers will check if the vaccine is safe and if it helps the immune system fight infections, while trying to figure out what makes the vaccine work better in some patients than others.