Infectious complications of CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor–modified T-cell immunotherapy

JA Hill, D Li, KA Hay, ML Green… - Blood, The Journal …, 2018 - ashpublications.org
JA Hill, D Li, KA Hay, ML Green, S Cherian, X Chen, SR Riddell, DG Maloney, M Boeckh
Blood, The Journal of the American Society of Hematology, 2018ashpublications.org
Lymphodepletion chemotherapy with CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor–modified T
(CAR-T)-cell immunotherapy is a novel treatment for refractory or relapsed B-cell
malignancies. Infectious complications of this approach have not been systematically
studied. We evaluated infections occurring between days 0 to 90 in 133 patients treated with
CD19 CAR-T cells in a phase 1/2 study. We used Poisson and Cox regression to evaluate
pre-and posttreatment risk factors for infection, respectively. The cohort included patients …
Lymphodepletion chemotherapy with CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor–modified T (CAR-T)-cell immunotherapy is a novel treatment for refractory or relapsed B-cell malignancies. Infectious complications of this approach have not been systematically studied. We evaluated infections occurring between days 0 to 90 in 133 patients treated with CD19 CAR-T cells in a phase 1/2 study. We used Poisson and Cox regression to evaluate pre- and posttreatment risk factors for infection, respectively. The cohort included patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL; n = 47), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (n = 24), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 62). There were 43 infections in 30 of 133 patients (23%) within 28 days after CAR–T-cell infusion with an infection density of 1.19 infections for every 100 days at risk. There was a lower infection density of 0.67 between days 29 and 90 (P = .02). The first infection occurred a median of 6 days after CAR–T-cell infusion. Six patients (5%) developed invasive fungal infections and 5 patients (4%) had life-threatening or fatal infections. Patients with ALL, ≥4 prior antitumor regimens, and receipt of the highest CAR–T-cell dose (2 × 107 cells per kg) had a higher infection density within 28 days in an adjusted model of baseline characteristics. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) severity was the only factor after CAR–T-cell infusion associated with infection in a multivariable analysis. The incidence of infections was comparable to observations from clinical trials of salvage chemoimmunotherapies in similar patients. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01865617.
ashpublications.org