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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1530623
This article is part of the Research Topic Microbiota-Immunity Dynamics in Cancer: Mechanisms and Implications for Treatment Strategies View all articles
Efficacy and Safety of Tocilizumab in Managing Cytokine Release Syndrome After CD19 CAR-T Therapy for Relapsed or Refractory B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Provisionally accepted
Qianyi Zhou 1
Yuxin An 1
Xiaomei Zhang 2
Xia Xiao 3 Xue Bai 3
Pengjiang Liu 3 Yedi Pu 3 Juanxia Meng 3 Haibo Zhu 3
Cuicui Lyu 3 Huan Zhang 3
Yu Zhang 3 Tianle Xie 2
Haotian Meng 2 Hairong Lyu 3*- 1 First Clinical Medical College, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
- 2 School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
- 3 Department of Hematology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China
CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy has shown promise in treating relapsed or refractory (R/R) B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), but cytokine release syndrome (CRS) remains a significant side effect. This retrospective cohort study investigated the use of tocilizumab for managing CAR-T-related CRS in 45 R/R B-ALL patients. Of these, 17 patients received tocilizumab, resulting in a significant reduction in the duration of grade 3 CRS compared to those who did not receive the drug. Additionally, 10 patients showed decreased cytokine levels. Importantly, tocilizumab did not impair CAR-T cell expansion or efficacy, nor did it increase the incidence of adverse events. These findings suggest that tocilizumab may be an effective and safe strategy for mitigating CAR-T-related CRS in R/R B-ALL patients, potentially improving patient outcomes and survival.
Keywords: chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell, tocilizumab, Cytokine release syndrome (CRS), efficacy and safety, acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL)
Received: 19 Nov 2024; Accepted: 27 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, An, Zhang, Xiao, Bai, Liu, Pu, Meng, Zhu, Lyu, Zhang, Zhang, Xie, Meng and Lyu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hairong Lyu, Department of Hematology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.