FAQs About the Flu Shot for Cancer Patients

Yes. Getting a flu shot is recommended for most people with cancer as well as cancer survivors.

Cancer and cancer treatment can weaken the immune system which puts patients at a higher risk of serious and even life-threatening problems if they get the flu.

Family members and household contacts who help care for patients with cancer or receiving cancer treatment should also get a flu shot.

Patients with cancer should get the flu shot, not the nasal spray.

The flu shot is an inactivated vaccine, which means that the virus used is already dead and cannot make you sick.

The nasal spray is a live vaccine. It uses a weakened virus that can only live at the temperatures of the nose, but not the lungs, so it should not be able to make people sick, but a person with a weakened immune system may still get sick from it.

To be safe, people with weakened immune systems should only get the flu shot instead of the nasal spray.

Get a flu shot as soon as it is available, which is usually in October.

After you get the shot, it takes about 2 weeks for antibodies to build in your body to protect against the virus. This is why you should get the shot as early as possible in the season.

It does not matter what phase of therapy a patient is in, or what the absolute neutrophil count is.