BackgroundCurrently, three chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell products axicabtagene ciloleucel, tisagenlecleucel, and lisocabtagene maraleucel have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of large B cell lymphoma, which provide a novel and promising choice for patients with relapsed or refractory to traditional anti-tumor treatments. Thus, it is pertinent to describe the efficacy and safety profile of the three products available by summarizing the current evidence.MethodsTwo reviewers independently searched the Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, to identify studies related to the use of the three CAR-T cell products for treating hematologic malignancies published up to October 5, 2020. We pooled the overall response rate, complete response rate, cytokine release syndrome, and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome of three products, and then performed subgroup analysis based on the type of product and type of tumor.ResultsThirty-three studies involving 2,172 patients were included in the analysis. All three products showed promising results in patients with different pathological subtypes and clinical characteristics that included those who did not meet the eligibility criteria of licensing trials, with overall response rates of nearly 70% or above and complete response rates of more than 50%. However, high rates of severe immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome in patients undergoing axicabtagene ciloleucel treatment and life-threatening cytokine release syndrome in patients with leukemia undergoing tisagenlecleucel treatment required special attention in practice (31%; 95% CI: 0.27–0.35 and 55%; 95% CI: 0.45–0.64, respectively). Moreover, lisocabtagene maraleucel that showed a favorable efficacy and safety in the licensing trial lacked corresponding real-world data.ConclusionBoth axicabtagene ciloleucel and tisagenlecleucel showed considerable efficacy in practice, but need special attention with respect to life-threatening toxicity that can occur in certain situations. Lisocabtagene maraleucel demonstrated excellent efficacy and safety profiles in the licensing trial, but lacked corresponding real-world data. Additional data on the three products are needed in rare histological subtypes to benefit a broader patient population.

BackgroundGlucocorticoid is one of the common and important strategies for the treatment of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy-related toxicity. However, there has been a theoretical concern about whether glucocorticoids use can impact the expansion of CAR-T cells and thus impair its efficacy. Hence, we reviewed studies related to the Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Axi-cel), a first-class and widely used CAR-T cell product, to elucidate the association between glucocorticoids administration and efficacy of Axi-cel.MethodWe systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library to identify studies of Axi-cel that used glucocorticoids as an intervention for the treatment of CAR-T cell-related adverse events and respectively evaluated any efficacy endpoints of intervention and controlled cohorts, published up to February 17, 2020. There were no restrictions on research type and language.ResultsA total of eight studies with 706 patients were identified in the systematic review. Except for one study found that high cumulative dose, prolonged duration and early use of glucocorticoids could shorten progression-free survival and/or overall survival, and another study that found a negative effect of glucocorticoids administration on overall survival in univariate analysis but disappeared in multivariate analysis, none of other studies observed a statistically significant association between glucocorticoids administration and progression-free survival, overall survival, complete response, and overall response rate.ConclusionOur study indicated that the association between glucocorticoids therapy and the efficacy of CAR-T cell may be affected by cumulative dose, duration, and timing. There is currently no robust evidence that glucocorticoids can damage the efficacy of CAR-T cell, but the early use of glucocorticoids should be cautiously recommended.

BackgroundThe efficacy and safety of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy in the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has already been demonstrated. However, patients with a history of/active secondary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma were excluded from the licensing trials conducted on two widely used CAR-T cell products, Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Axi-cel) and Tisagenlecleucel (Tisa-cel). Hence, the objective of the present review was to assess whether secondary CNS lymphoma patients would derive a benefit from Axi-cel or Tisa-cel therapy, while maintaining controllable safety.MethodTwo reviewers searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane library independently in order to identify all records associated with Axi-cel and Tisa-cel published prior to February 15, 2021. Studies that included secondary CNS lymphoma patients treated with Axi-cel and Tisa-cel and reported or could be inferred efficacy and safety endpoints of secondary CNS lymphoma patients were included. A tool designed specifically to evaluate the risk of bias in case series and reports and the ROBINS-I tool applied for cohort studies were used.ResultsTen studies involving forty-four patients were included. Of these, seven were case reports or series. The other three reports were cohort studies involving twenty-five patients. Current evidence indicates that secondary CNS lymphoma patients could achieve long-term remission following Axi-cel and Tisa-cel treatment. Compared with the non-CNS cohort, however, progression-free survival and overall survival tended to be shorter. This was possibly due to the relatively small size of the CNS cohort. The incidence and grades of adverse effects in secondary CNS lymphoma patients resembled those in the non-CNS cohort. No incidences of CAR-T cell-related deaths were reported. Nevertheless, the small sample size introduced a high risk of bias and prevented the identification of specific patients who could benefit more from CAR-T cell therapy.ConclusionSecondary CNS lymphoma patients could seem to benefit from both Axi-cel and Tisa-cel treatment, with controllable risks. Thus, CAR-T cell therapy has potential as a candidate treatment for lymphoma patients with CNS involvement. Further prospective studies with larger samples and longer follow-up periods are warranted and recommended.

In the original article, there were mistakes in Table 2 as published. We collected data with reference to both the conference abstract version and the full-text published version of the TRANSCEND NHL 001 trial conducted by Abramson et al. (1, 2); in Table 2, we showed the data from the conference abstract version, which should be changed to the full-text version. The rest of the paper,