Publication details

Improved outcome of COVID-19 over time in patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy: Update of the European COVID-19 multicenter study on behalf of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Infectious Diseases Working Party (IDWP) and the European Hematology Association (EHA) Lymphoma Group

Authors	SPANJAART Anne Mea LJUNGMAN Per TRIDELLO Gloria SCHWARTZ Juana MARTINEZ-CIBRIAN Nuria BARBA Pere KWON Mi LOPEZ-CORRAL Lucia MARTINEZ-LOPEZ Joaquin FERRA Christelle ROBERTA Di Blasi GHESQUIERES Herve MUTSAERS Pim CALKOEN Friso JAK Margot JAAP van Doesum VERMAAT Joost S P MARJOLEIN van der Poel MAERTENS Johan GAMBELLA Massimiliano METAFUNI Elisabetta CICERI Fabio SACCARDI Riccardo NICHOLSON Emma THOLOULI Eleni MATTHEW Collin POTTER Victoria BLOOR Adrian BESLEY Caroline RODDIE Claire WILSON Keith NAGLER Arnon CAMPOS Antonio PETERSEN Soeren Lykke FOLBER František BADER Peter FINKE Jurgen KROGER Nicolaus KNELANGE Nina RAFAEL de la Camara KERSTEN Marie Jose MIELKE Stephan
Year of publication	2024
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Leukemia
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Medicine
Citation
web	https://www.nature.com/articles/s41375-024-02336-1
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41375-024-02336-1
Keywords	COVID-19; CAR T-cell therapy; Infectious diseases; Hematology; Patient outcomes
Description	COVID-19 has been associated with high mortality in patients treated with Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for hematologic malignancies. Here, we investigated whether the outcome has improved over time with the primary objective of assessing COVID-19-attributable mortality in the Omicron period of 2022 compared to previous years. Data for this multicenter study were collected using the MED-A and COVID-19 report forms developed by the EBMT. One-hundred-eighty patients were included in the analysis, 39 diagnosed in 2020, 35 in 2021 and 106 in 2022. The median age was 58.9 years (min-max: 5.2-78.4). There was a successive decrease in COVID-19-related mortality over time (2020: 43.6%, 2021: 22.9%, 2022: 7.5%) and in multivariate analysis year of infection was the strongest predictor of survival (p = 0.0001). Comparing 2022 with 2020-2021, significantly fewer patients had lower respiratory symptoms (21.7% vs 37.8%, p = 0.01), needed oxygen support (25.5% vs 43.2%, p = 0.01), or were admitted to ICU (5.7% vs 33.8%, p = 0.0001). Although COVID-19-related mortality has decreased over time, CAR T-cell recipients remain at higher risk for complications than the general population. Consequently, vigilant monitoring for COVID-19 in patients undergoing B-cell-targeting CAR T-cell treatment is continuously recommended ensuring optimal prevention of infection and advanced state-of-the art treatment when needed.