Marie-Therese Rubio, Roberta Di Blasi, Gilles Salles, Miguel A Perales, Kada Klouche, Muriel Picard, Pierre Sesques, Eric Mariotte, Michael Darmon, Boris Böll, Philippe R. Bauer, Sanjay Chawla, Kevin Rakszawski, Nahema Issa, Anne Huynh, Guillaume Cartron, Florence Rabian, Peter Borchmann, Michael Joannidis, Sabine Furst, Sophie de Guibert, Lara Zafrani, Patrice Ceballos, Nicolas Boissel, David Beauvais, Catherine Thieblemont, François-Xavier Gros, Alberto Mussetti, Gabriel Moreno-González, Adel Maamar, Florent Wallet, Faezeh Legrand, Julien Leroy, Quentin Quelven, Djamel Mokart, Valentin Ortiz, Christian Recher, Jakob Rudzki, Laura Platon, Pleun Hemelaar, Benoit Tessoulin, Reuben Benjamin, Sandrine Valade, Pedro Castro, Gennadii Galstian, Amélie Seguin, Peter Schellongowski, Anna Sureda, Alice Gallo De Moraes, Philipp Wohlfarth, Bruno Levy, Andry Van de Louw, Jorge Garcia Borrega, Julio Delgado, Ibrahim Yakoub-Agha, Nathalie Fégueux, Laveena Munshi, Yi Lin, Emmanuel Bachy, Stéphanie Harel, Sara Fernández, Bertrand Arnulf, Thomas Gastinne, Elie Azoulay, Didier Blaise, Amandine Le Bourgeois, Louis Voigt, Cécile Borel, Anne-Sophie Moreau, Christian Chabannon, Ulrich Jäger, Virginie Lemiale, Olga Gavrilina, Victoria Metaxa, Thomas Staudingert, Edouard Forcade, Hopital Saint-Louis [AP-HP] (AP-HP), Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) (AP-HP), University of Barcelona, CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes], Centre d'Investigation Clinique [Rennes] (CIC), Université de Rennes (UR)-Hôpital Pontchaillou-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), King's College Hospital (KCH), Mayo Clinic [Rochester], Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center [New York], Weill Medical College of Cornell University [New York], Centre Hospitalier Lyon Sud [CHU - HCL] (CHLS), Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), Physiologie & médecine expérimentale du Cœur et des Muscles [U 1046] (PhyMedExp), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire [Montpellier] (CHRU Montpellier), Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse - Oncopole (IUCT Oncopole - UMR 1037), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse (CHU Toulouse)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Hôpital Roger Salengro [Lille], Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE)-Penn State System, Centre hospitalier universitaire de Nantes (CHU Nantes), Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC), Universitätsklinikum Köln (Uniklinik Köln), Hôpital Saint-André, Défaillance Cardiovasculaire Aiguë et Chronique (DCAC), Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Nancy (CHRU Nancy)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université de Lorraine (UL), Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Nancy (CHRU Nancy), Radboud University Medical Center [Nijmegen], Universitat de Barcelona (UB), University of Toronto, Medizinische Universität Wien = Medical University of Vienna, Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck - University of Innsbruck, Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille (CRCM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC)-Fédération nationale des Centres de lutte contre le Cancer (FNCLCC)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (IGMM), Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Groupe de Recherche Respiratoire en Réanimation Onco-Hématologique, Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Hôpital Pontchaillou-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), CHU Toulouse [Toulouse]-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Service de Soins Intensifs [CHRU Nancy], Radboud University Medical Centre [Nijmegen, The Netherlands], University of Innsbruck, and National Research Center for Hematology [Moscow, Russia]
Summary Background Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy can induce side-effects such as cytokine release syndrome and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), which often require intensive care unit admission. The aim of this study was to describe management of critically ill CAR T-cell recipients in intensive care. Methods This international, multicentre, observational cohort study was done in 21 intensive care units in France, Spain, the USA, the UK, Russia, Canada, Germany, and Austria. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older; had received CAR T-cell therapy in the past 30 days; and had been admitted to intensive care for any reason. Investigators retrospectively included patients admitted between Feb 1, 2018, and Feb 1, 2019, and prospectively included patients admitted between March 1, 2019, and Feb 1, 2020. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, treatment, and outcome data were extracted from medical records. The primary endpoint was 90-day mortality. Factors associated with mortality were identified using a Cox proportional hazard model. Findings 942 patients received CAR T-cell therapy, of whom 258 (27%) required admission to intensive care and 241 (26%) were included in the analysis. Admission to intensive care was needed within median 4·5 days (IQR 2·0–7·0) of CAR T-cell infusion. 90-day mortality was 22·4% (95% CI 17·1–27·7; 54 deaths). At initial evaluation on admission, isolated cytokine release syndrome was identified in 101 patients (42%), cytokine release syndrome and ICANS in 93 (39%), and isolated ICANS in seven (3%) patients. Grade 3–4 cytokine release syndrome within 1 day of admission to intensive care was found in 50 (25%) of 200 patients and grade 3–4 ICANS in 38 (35%) of 108 patients. Bacterial infection developed in 30 (12%) patients. Life-saving treatments were used in 75 (31%) patients within 24 h of admission to intensive care, primarily vasoactive drugs in 65 (27%) patients. Factors independently associated with 90-day mortality by multivariable analysis were frailty (hazard ratio 2·51 [95% CI 1·37–4·57]), bacterial infection (2·12 [1·11–4·08]), and lifesaving therapy within 24 h of admission (1·80 [1·05–3·10]). Interpretation Critical care management is an integral part of CAR T-cell therapy and should be standardised. Studies to improve infection prevention and treatment in these high-risk patients are warranted. Funding Groupe de Recherche Respiratoire en Reanimation Onco-Hematologique.