David Koeckerling from Heidelberg University and colleagues from the UK, Germany and Switzerland conducted a meta-analysis of 13 studies and found that the incidence of serious cardiac events after therapy for hematological malignancies with chimeric antigen receptors T cells (CAR-T cells) is relatively low. A total of 1,528 patients (median age 61 years; 66 percent men) who received such treatment (80 percent for lymphoma) took part in the studies. The report on the work was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The median follow-up period was 487 days. Random-effects meta-analysis showed that the overall incidence of ventricular arrhythmias was 0.66 percent; supraventricular arrhythmias, 7.79 percent; left ventricular dysfunction, 8.68 percent; heart failure, 3.87 percent; myocardial infarction, 0.62 percent; and cardiovascular death, 0.63 percent. The overall incidence of all-cause death was 30.01 percent. Sensitivity analyses yielded similar results. Thus, serious cardiovascular events after CAR-T therapy are generally uncommon; among their indicators, cardiac ejection fraction and supraventricular arrhythmias deserve special attention and monitoring, the authors conclude.