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Severe dyspnea caused by rapid enlargement of cervical lymph node in a relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma patient following chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy

Abstract

Adoptive transfer of T cells modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) targeting CD19 (CART19s) has demonstrated impressive results in treating B-cell malignancies. Although CART19-induced complications have been gradually recognized, local cytokine-release syndrome (CRS) at particular parts of the body has not been extensively studied. In this paper, we firstly present a successfully treated case of severe dyspnea caused by the rapid enlargement of cervical lymph node following CART19 therapy in a relapsed/refractory DLBCL patient, with emphasis on the recognition, workup, and treatment. This report reminds for a careful evaluation and observation of the pre-existing mass, which could enlarge rapidly again as a result of CRS and be life threatening, in the CART therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from 973 Program (2015CB964900), the Natural Science Foundation of China (81470341, 81770201, 81730008), Key Project of Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (2018C03016-2, 2015C03G2150011), and Zhejiang public welfare foundation (GF18H180002).

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Correspondence to He Huang.

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Jin, A., Feng, J., Wang, Z. et al. Severe dyspnea caused by rapid enlargement of cervical lymph node in a relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma patient following chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. Bone Marrow Transplant 54, 969–972 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-018-0412-1

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