Response to COVID-19 Vaccination Post-CAR T Therapy in Patients With Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma

This study evaluated SARS-CoV-2 spike-binding IgG antibody levels following COVID-19 vaccination among non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma CAR T therapy recipients. In this retrospective study, we evaluated 104 patients that received CAR T therapy; of those 17 patients were evaluated for antibody spike titers following CAR T therapy. We found that only a minority of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma patients were able to mount a clinically relevant ( > 250 IU/mL) antibody response. COVID-19 adversely affects individuals with cancer. Several studies have found that seroconversion rates among patients with hematologic malignancies are suboptimal when compared to patients without cancer. Patients with nonHodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma (MM) are immunocompromised due to impaired humoral and cellular immunity in addition to prescribed immunosuppressive therapy. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy is now widely used for NHL and MM, but little is known about seroconversion rates after COVID-19 vaccination among these populations. We evaluated SARS-CoV-2 spike-binding IgG antibody levels following COVID-19 vaccination among NHL and MM CAR T therapy recipients. Out of 104 CAR T infusions, 19 patients developed known COVID-19 infection postCAR T. We tested 17 patients that received CAR T for antibody spike titers post COVID-19 vaccination, only 29 % (n = 5) were able to mount a clinically relevant antibody response ( > 250 IU/mL).

Automated summary

This study evaluated the levels of SARS-CoV-2 spike-binding IgG antibodies in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma CAR T therapy recipients after COVID-19 vaccination. It found that only a minority of these patients were able to mount a clinically relevant antibody response (> 250 IU/mL).