Experimental Hematology & Oncology (Jul 2023)

Multidisciplinary recommendations for the management of CAR-T recipients in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era

  • Tingting Zhang,
  • Weiwei Tian,
  • Shuang Wei,
  • Xinyi Lu,
  • Jing An,
  • Shaolong He,
  • Jie Zhao,
  • Zhilin Gao,
  • Li Li,
  • Ke Lian,
  • Qiang Zhou,
  • Huilai Zhang,
  • Liang Wang,
  • Liping Su,
  • Huicong Kang,
  • Ting Niu,
  • Ailin Zhao,
  • Jing Pan,
  • Qingqing Cai,
  • Zhenshu Xu,
  • Wenming Chen,
  • Hongmei Jing,
  • Peng Li,
  • Wanhong Zhao,
  • Yang Cao,
  • Jianqing Mi,
  • Tao Chen,
  • Yuan Chen,
  • Ping Zou,
  • Veronika Lukacs-Kornek,
  • Christian Kurts,
  • Jian Li,
  • Xiansheng Liu,
  • Qi Mei,
  • Yicheng Zhang,
  • Jia Wei

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40164-023-00426-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 17

Abstract

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Abstract The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) posed an unprecedented challenge on public health systems. Despite the measures put in place to contain it, COVID-19 is likely to continue experiencing sporadic outbreaks for some time, and individuals will remain susceptible to recurrent infections. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T recipients are characterized by durable B-cell aplasia, hypogammaglobulinemia and loss of T-cell diversity, which lead to an increased proportion of severe/critical cases and a high mortality rate after COVID-19 infection. Thus, treatment decisions have become much more complex and require greater caution when considering CAR T-cell immunotherapy. Hence, we reviewed the current understanding of COVID-19 and reported clinical experience in the management of COVID-19 and CAR-T therapy. After a panel discussion, we proposed a rational procedure pertaining to CAR-T recipients with the aim of maximizing the benefit of CAR-T therapy in the post COVID-19 pandemic era.

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