Outcomes of Tisagenlecleucel in Lymphoma Patients With Predominant Management in an Ambulatory Setting

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T) is a revolutionary adoptive immunotherapy approach in lymphoma; however, substantial resources are necessary for administration and care of these patients. Our institution has administered tisagenlecleucel primarily in an outpatient setting, and here we report our clinical outcomes.

We conducted a single institution, retrospective study investigating outcomes of adult lymphoma patients treated with commercial tisagenlecleucel between 10/2017 and 12/2020. We analyzed patient characteristics and outcomes of efficacy and safety including overall response rate, progression-free survival, overall survival and cytokine-release syndrome, neurotoxicity, and hospitalizations.

Seventy-two patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who received commercial tisagenlecleucel were identified; 68 (94.4%) patients received outpatient tisagenlecleucel. The overall response rate was 43% with a complete response observed in 25 patients (34.7%). At a median follow-up of 9.1 months, the median progression-free survival was 3.3 months. Grade 3-4 cytokine release syndrome was not observed in the study group and two patients had grade 3-4 neurotoxicity. Twenty-six patients (36.1%) were admitted within 30 days after infusion with a median length of stay of 5 days. Fourteen patients (19.4%) were admitted within 72 hours of infusion. No patient died of CAR T cell-related toxicity.

Our experience affirms treatment with tisagenlecleucel in the outpatient setting is safe and feasible with close supervision and adequate institutional experience. After infusion, adverse events were manageable and the majority of patients did not require hospitalization.