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‹ Thu · 18 Jun 2026
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Real-world assessment of prophylactic anakinra on neurotoxicity and cytokine release syndrome after CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in R/R B-cell lymphoma: An inverse probability of treatment weighting analysis.

Routine preventive anakinra didn't help CAR-T lymphoma patients and linked to more infections, guiding smarter treatment selection.

In 176 high-risk lymphoma patients receiving CD19 CAR-T therapy at a single center with IPTW analysis, prophylactic anakinra failed to reduce severe ICANS and was associated with a 7-fold higher odds of grade ≥3 infections by day 30 versus controls. This important negative real-world finding challenges the rationale for routine prophylactic anakinra outside clinical trials.

What the study was

Study design
Retrospective cohort, IPTW analysis
Population
High-risk adults with R/R B-cell NHL receiving CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, age ≥65 or CD28 co-stimulatory domain product, n=176
Sample size
176
Category
Treatment Innovation
Maturity
Exploratory
Journal
Transplant Cell Ther

Why it surfaced

Clinically impactful negative finding: prophylactic anakinra for CAR-T toxicity prevention not supported in this real-world IPTW analysis (n=176). Challenges off-label practice. Single-center and retrospective limitations acknowledged.

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