A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Inactivated Varicella-zoster Vaccine (VZV) as a Preventative Treatment for Herpes Zoster (HZ) and HZ-related Complications in Adult Participants With Solid Tumor or Hematologic Malignancy (V212-011)

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to assess the safety and tolerability of V212 when administered to adults with solid tumor malignancy (STM) receiving chemotherapy and to assess the impact of V212 on the development of herpes zoster (HZ) in adults with STM receiving chemotherapy. The primary hypothesis is that vaccination with V212 will reduce the incidence of HZ compared with placebo in adults with STM (lower bound of the 97.5% {one-sided α=0.0125} confidence interval \[CI\] for the estimated vaccine efficacy in adults with STM be \>25%). Participants with hematologic malignancy (HM) were also enrolled and were to be originally included in the primary and secondary objectives and analyses. After an interim analysis demonstrated clear evidence of futility of V212 in the HM population, enrollment of this population was stopped and all HM-related objectives and analyses were made exploratory and are not reported in this record.

Sex

All

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion criteria:

* Has been diagnosed with an STM or HM and is not likely to undergo hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) and is either ≥18 years of age and receiving a cytotoxic or immunosuppressive chemotherapy regimen OR is ≥ 50 years of age with a hematologic malignancy that is not in remission, whether on therapy or not
* Life expectancy ≥12 months
* Has prior history of varicella, antibodies to VZV (documented prior to receipt of blood products), or residence in a country with endemic VZV infection for ≥30 years or if participant is \<30 years old, attended primary or secondary school in a country with endemic VZV infection
* Is highly unlikely to conceive during the time period starting 2 weeks prior to enrollment through 6 months from last vaccination dose
* Female participants of childbearing potential must have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test

Exclusion criteria:

* History of hypersensitivity reaction to any vaccine component
* Prior history of Herpes Zoster within 1 year of enrollment
* Has received or is expected to receive any varicella or non-study zoster vaccine
* Currently receiving or expected to receive long-term antiviral prophylaxis (\>4 weeks duration) with activity against herpes simplex virus (HSV), VZV or cytomegalovirus (CMV)
* Is pregnant or breastfeeding or expecting to conceive within the period of 2 weeks prior to enrollment throughout 6 months from last vaccination dose
* Has received a live virus vaccine or is scheduled to receive a live virus vaccine in the period from 4 weeks prior to Dose 1 through 28 days Postdose 4
* Has received an inactivated vaccine or is scheduled to receive an inactivated vaccine in the period between 7 days prior to and 28 days following Doses 1 through 4

• DERIVEDZorger AM, Hirsch C, Baumann M, Feldmann M, Brockelmann PJ, Mellinghoff S, Monsef I, Skoetz N, Kreuzberger N. Vaccines for preventing infections in adults with haematological malignancies. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 May 21;5(5):CD015530. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD015530.pub2. PMID 40396505
• DERIVEDHirsch C, Zorger AM, Baumann M, Park YS, Brockelmann PJ, Mellinghoff S, Monsef I, Skoetz N, Kreuzberger N. Vaccines for preventing infections in adults with solid tumours. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 Apr 16;4(4):CD015551. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD015551.pub2. PMID 40237463
• DERIVEDBoeckh MJ, Arvin AM, Mullane KM, Camacho LH, Winston DJ, Morrison VA, Hurtado K, Durrand Hall J, Pang L, Su SC, Kaplan SS, Annunziato PW, Popmihajlov Z; V212 Protocol 001 Trial Group and V212 Protocol 011 Trial Group. Immunogenicity of Inactivated Varicella Zoster Vaccine in Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients and Patients With Solid or Hematologic Cancer. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Jun 2;7(7):ofaa172. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa172. eCollection 2020 Jul. PMID 32665955
• DERIVEDMullane KM, Morrison VA, Camacho LH, Arvin A, McNeil SA, Durrand J, Campbell B, Su SC, Chan ISF, Parrino J, Kaplan SS, Popmihajlov Z, Annunziato PW; V212 Protocol 011 Trial Team. Safety and efficacy of inactivated varicella zoster virus vaccine in immunocompromised patients with malignancies: a two-arm, randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2019 Sep;19(9):1001-1012. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30310-X. Epub 2019 Aug 6. PMID 31399378