Updated insights on cardiac risks of CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy: a pharmacovigilance study
Abstract
Aim: Comprehensively characterize the cardiotoxicity of CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) products. Materials & methods: Data between 2017 and 2021 in the US FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System database were utilized. Disproportionality was measured using reporting odds ratio and information component. Hierarchical clustering analysis was performed to explore the relationships among cardiac events. Results: Tisagenlecleucel exhibited the highest percentage of death (53.24%) and life-threatening (13.39%) outcomes. Axicabtagene ciloleucel and tisagenlecleucel were equal in the number of positive signals (n = 15), while the former had excessive reporting of several cardiac events versus the latter, such as atrial fibrillation, cardiomyopathy, cardiorenal syndrome and sinus bradycardia. Conclusion: Several cardiac risks should be considered for CAR-T treatment and these events might vary in frequency and severity following different CAR-T agents.
Plain language summary
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is effective in a wide spectrum of malignancies. However, the complete cardiotoxicity profile associated with this new treatment has not been characterized. This study systematically analyzed the reported cardiac events of four approved CAR-T agents using the US FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System database. It indicated that the type of cardiac events was broad and overlapped a lot with cytokine release syndrome. Pre-therapy assessment, intensive monitoring and appropriate intervention were critical to reduce the level of cardiac damage or the rate of mortality in patients receiving CAR-T.
Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest
References
- 1. . From detecting signals to understanding cardiovascular toxicities of cancer therapies: all the light we could see. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 78, 1814–1816 (2021). • Brief overview of the cardiovascular toxicities of cancer therapies.
- 2. . Adverse events and side effects of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy in patients with hematologic malignancies. Trends Mol. Med. 1(1), e116301 (2021).
- 3. Treatment-related adverse events of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) in clinical trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancers (Basel) 13(15), 3912 (2021). •• Meta-analysis demonstrating various chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T)-related events in clinical trials.
- 4. Efficacy and safety of CD19-directed CAR-T cell therapies in patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell lymphomas: observations from the JULIET, ZUMA-1, and TRANSCEND trials. Am. J. Hematol. 96(10), 1295–1312 (2021).
- 5. . Tisagenlecleucel – the first approved CAR-T-cell therapy: implications for payers and policy makers. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 15(1), 11–12 (2018).
- 6. . Strategies for having a more effective and less toxic CAR T-cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Med. Oncol. 37(11), 100 (2020).
- 7. . FDA approves first BCMA-targeted CAR-T cell therapy. Nat. Rev. Drug. Discov. 20(5), 332 (2021).
- 8. American Association for Cancer research. FDA approves second CAR T-cell therapy. Cancer Discov. 8(1), 5–6 (2018).
- 9. . CAR-T therapy is approved for mantle cell lymphoma. JAMA 324(9), 832 (2020).
- 10. . Brexucabtagene autoleucel for the treatment of relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma. Expert Opin. Biol. Ther. 21(4), 435–441 (2021).
- 11. . Cardiotoxicities of novel cancer immunotherapies. Heart 107(21), 1694–1703 (2021).
- 12. Adverse cardiovascular and pulmonary events associated with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 78(18), 1800–1813 (2021). •• Disproportionality analysis highlighting several cardiac toxicities associated with CAR-T treatment.
- 13. Cardiovascular events among adults treated with chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T). J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 74(25), 3099–3108 (2019). • Retrospective cohort study evaluating the possible cardiac toxicities of CAR-T.
- 14. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy-associated cardiomyopathy in patients with refractory or relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Circulation 142(17), 1687–1690 (2020).
- 15. Cardiac profile of chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy in children: a single-institution experience. Biol. Blood Marrow Transplant. 24(8), 1590–1595 (2018).
- 16. . Cardiovascular effects of CAR T cell therapy: a retrospective study. JACC CardioOncol. 2(2), 193–203 (2020).
- 17. . Spontaneous reporting in pharmacovigilance: strengths, weaknesses and recent methods of analysis. J. Clin. Prev. Cardiol. 1, 20–23 (2012).
- 18. Cardiovascular events associated with chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy: cross-sectional FDA adverse events reporting system analysis. Biol. Blood Marrow Transplant. 26(12), 2211–2216 (2020).
- 19. . Multiple sclerosis outcomes after cancer immunotherapy. Clin. Transl. Oncol. 21(10), 1336–1342 (2019).
- 20. . Significance of data mining in routine signal detection: analysis based on the safety signals identified by the FDA. Pharmacoepidemiol. Drug Saf. 27(12), 1402–1408 (2018).
- 21. . Performance of pharmacovigilance signal-detection algorithms for the FDA adverse event reporting system. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 93(6), 539–546 (2013).
- 22. Cardiovascular toxicities associated with ibrutinib. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 74(13), 1667–1678 (2019).
- 23. . Data mining spontaneous adverse drug event reports for safety signals in Singapore – a comparison of three different disproportionality measures. Expert Opin. Drug Saf. 15(5), 583–590 (2016).
- 24. . A comparison of disproportionality analysis methods in national adverse drug reaction databases of China. Expert Opin. Drug Saf. 3(7), 853–857 (2014). •• Introduction and comparison of several disproportionality analysis methods.
- 25. . Shrinkage observed-to-expected ratios for robust and transparent large-scale pattern discovery. Stat. Methods Med. Res. 22(1), 57–69 (2013). • Explanation of the statistical shrinkage technique.
- 26. Efficacy and safety of CAR-T cell products axicabtagene ciloleucel, tisagenlecleucel, and lisocabtagene maraleucel for the treatment of hematologic malignancies: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front. Oncol. 11, 698607 (2021).
- 27. . CAR T cell therapy-related cardiovascular outcomes and management: systemic disease or direct cardiotoxicity? JACC CardioOncol. 2(1), 97–109 (2020).
- 28. Risks and benefits of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy in cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Transfus. Med. Rev. 33(2), 98–110 (2019).
- 29. . Toxicities of chimeric antigen receptor T cells: recognition and management. Blood 127(26), 3321–3330 (2016).
- 30. . Recent advances in CAR T-cell toxicity: mechanisms, manifestations and management. Blood Rev. 34, 45–55 (2019). •• Latest research developments in CAR-T toxicity.
- 31. . Safety profile of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapies (CAR-T) in clinical practice. Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 77(8), 1225–1234 (2021).
- 32. Tisagenlecleucel in children and young adults with B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia. N. Engl. J. Med. 378(5), 439–448 (2018).
- 33. . Cardiac events associated with chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T): a VigiBase perspective. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 75(19), 2521–2523 (2020).
- 34. . CAR T cell toxicity: current management and future directions. Hemasphere 3(2), e186 (2019). •• Highlighting strategies to diminish side effects of several most important toxicities associated with CAR-T.
- 35. . Cardiotoxicity from chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy for advanced malignancies. Eur. Heart J. 43(20), 1928–1940 (2022).
- 36. . Uses of pharmacovigilance databases: an overview. Therapie 75(6), 591–598 (2020).