von dem Borne, Peter A., Kemps-Mols, Berit M., de Wreede, Liesbeth C., van Beek, Adriaan A., Snijders, Tjeerd J.F., van Lammeren, Daniëlle, Tijmensen, Janneke, Sijs-Szabó, Aniko, Oudshoorn, Mirjam A., Halkes, Constantijn J.M, van Balen, Peter, Marijt, W.A. Erik, Tjon, Jennifer M.L., Vermaat, Joost S.P, and Veelken, Hendrik
Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurs frequently after haplo-identical allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) with post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy), increasing nonrelapse mortality (NRM) and decreasing survival. Data on CRS in HLA-matched alloSCT are limited and effects of specific HLA-mismatches on CRS development unknown. We hypothesized that in HLA-matched alloSCT increasing degrees of HLA-mismatching influence CRS incidence, NRM and survival. Retrospective analysis of 126 HLA-matched PTCy-alloSCT patients showed that higher degrees of HLA-mismatching significantly increased CRS incidence (26%, 75% and 90% CRS with 12/12, 10/10 and 9/10 matched donors, respectively). Maximum temperature during CRS increased with higher HLA-mismatch. Specific associations between HLA-mismatches and CRS could be determined. Grade 2 CRS and CRS-induced grade 3 fever were associated with significantly increased NRM (p < 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively) and inferior survival (p < 0.001 and p = 0.005, respectively). NRM was mainly caused by disease conditions that may be considered CRS-induced inflammatory responses (encephalopathy, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia and multi-organ failure). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]