CAR T therapy in adult DLBCL patients in Slovenia : evaluation of predictive scores for outcomes and adverse events

Sršen, Lucija (author), Auersperger, Irena (author), Janžič, Larisa (author), Kopitar, Andreja Nataša (author), Reberšek, Katarina (author), Jezeršek Novaković, Barbara (author), Novak, Polona (author), Rener, Karla (author), Šlajpah, Klara (author), Ihan, Alojz (author), Zver, Samo (author), Sever, Matjaž (author)

CAR T cell therapy is a promising immunotherapy for hematologic malignancies, yet early prediction of outcomes and adverse events remains difficult, especially in small real-world cohorts. We retrospectively analyzed 14 adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with CAR T cells in Slovenia, assessing IL-6 increase rates and established predictive metrics including EASIX-C, CAR-HEMATOTOX, and IBPS on Day −5 (pre-lymphodepletion) and Day 0 (infusion). Contrary to our expectation, an inverse correlation was observed between the increase rate of IL-6 and the occurrence of severe cytopenias, indicating higher IL-6 increase rate leads to less severe cytopenias. The EASIX-C score showed higher predictive values when calculated on Day 0, contrary to the CAR-HEMATOTOX score, whose higher predictive values were observed on Day −5. The IBPS predictive values showed mixed results when comparing Day −5 to Day 0. We observed 50% response rate and 29% remission rate. The results highlight the utility of predictive scores, with unexpected findings on IL-6 suggesting further study is necessary.

• Language: English
• Keywords: CAR T cell therapy, hematologic malignancies, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, predictive scores, adverse events, therapeutic outcomes
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 22, no. 1, art. 2620889
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181494
• UDC: 616.1
• ISSN on article: 2164-5515
• DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2026.2620889
• COBISS.SI-ID: 267251459
• Publication date in RUL: 09.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics
• Shortened title: Hum. vaccin. immunother.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 2164-5515
• COBISS.SI-ID: 4534392

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: celično zdravljenje CAR T, hematološke maligne bolezni, difuzni velikocelični limfom, neželeni učinki