Patients With DLBCL Made Up Majority of CAR T-Cell Therapy Hospitalizations in 2018

More than three-quarters of patients hospitalized for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in the United States in 2018 had diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to an abstract presented at the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The study looked at real-world outcomes of patients hospitalized to receive CAR T-cell therapy for DLBCL, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), and B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Using the 2018 National Inpatient Sample database, researchers identified 785 patients discharged with International Classification of Diseases codes for CAR T-cell therapy and DLBCL, PMBCL, or ALL.

Nearly 79% of patients who underwent CAR T-cell therapy had DLBCL, 19.75% had ALL, and 1.27% had PMBCL, researchers reported.

Among the study population as a whole, the average length of hospital stay was 23.26 days. Per diagnosis, length of stays averaged 33.67 days for patients with ALL, 20.76 days for patients with DLBCL, and 17 days for patients with PMBCL. Hospitalization costs averaged $285,989 overall, according to the study. Per diagnosis, hospitalization costs averaged $342,228 for patients with ALL, $274,102 for patients with DLBCL, and $179,431 for patients with PMBCL.

The mortality rate during hospitalization was 7.6% overall. Mortality rates were 12.9% for patients with ALL, 6.4% for patients with DLBCL, and 0% for those with PMBCL.

“The in-hospital mortality with the CAR-T cell therapy appears to be higher than reported in clinical trials,” researchers observed, “especially for ALL.”

Reference:
Rai MP, Bedi PS, Kasi A, Mehta K. In-hospital outcomes of CAR T-cell therapy in United States in 2018: a nationwide analysis. Abstract presented at 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting; June 4-8, 2021.