If the cylinder is in the Reactive Near-Field of the antenna, it will distort the dipole radiation pattern.
Reactive Near-Field is the region close to the antenna where the Electric-E and Magnetic-H fields are not orthogonal and anything within this region which couple with the antenna will distort the radiated pattern.
Also an external λ/2 coupled conductor near a dipole placed to a certain distance (approximately λ/10) become a reflector changing the antenna gain to opposite direction.