"Yale Cancer Center researchers have developed a vaccine strategy that reduces the risk of flu infections in cancer patients at highest risk for influenza. The findings were presented Dec.  at the th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Orlando Florida.  Patients with cancers of the immune system like multiple myeloma are especially susceptible to common infections and a bout of the flu can lead to serious illness and even death. Even though patients with multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders may receive an annual flu vaccine studies show that a onetime flu shot does not offer adequate immune response.  The Yale researchers developed a strategy that entailed offering patients a highdose flu vaccine followed by a second highdose booster shot one month later. The highdose vaccine Fluzone HighDose was approved in  by the FDA as a single dose for adults over .  The booster strategy lowered the flu infection rate among patients to  versus an expected rate of  and it improved protection against all flu strains covered by the vaccine in  of patients said the studys first author Andrew Branagan M.D. a postdoctoral associate in medicine hematology.  Using an approved flu vaccine in a novel dosing schedule yielded promising results for a group patients at high risk for infection Branagan said. We hope to confirm these results in a larger prospective randomized trial that is underway now at Yale during the  flu season. We suspect this strategy could benefit other cancer patient populations.  This study was supported by the Arthur R. Sekerak Cancer Research Fund a Yale Cancer Center philanthropic fund."