Elsevier

Clinical Oncology

Volume 33, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages e73-e81
Clinical Oncology

Overview
How Useful is COVID-19 Antibody Testing – A Current Assessment for Oncologists

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clon.2020.10.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Antibody testing has been touted as the key to undo the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown, particularly for cancer patients.

  • Testing has shown only low levels of seroconversion in populations and individuals tested for antibodies.

  • This poses questions about immune responses induced by COVID-19.

  • Uncertainty has been amplified by a lack of standardisation of testing and variability between kits.

  • Oncology consultants and treatment centres cannot rely on antibody testing to safely re-establish services.

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic due to infection by a new human coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has seriously disrupted the provision of oncology services and their uptake. Antibody testing, both at an individual level and of populations, has been widely viewed to be a key activity for guiding the options for treatment of high-risk individuals, as well as the implementation of safe control of infection measures. Ideally, the detection of a specific antibody should signify that all individuals tested have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 and that in the case of specific IgG that they are immune to further infection. This would enable SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals to be appropriately managed and healthcare workers shown to be immune to return to work where they would no longer pose a risk to their patients or be at risk themselves. Unfortunately, this is not the case for COVID-19, where it has been shown that immunity may not be protective, and seroconversion delayed or absent. The variability in antibody test performance, particularly that of lateral flow assays, has caused confusion for the public and healthcare professions alike. Many antibody test devices have been made available without independent evaluations and these may lack both adequate sensitivity and specificity. This review seeks to educate healthcare workers, particularly those working in oncology, of the current benefits and limitations of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing.

Keywords

Antibody
COVID-19
lateral flow device
oncology
SARS-CoV-2

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