A Phase II Trial of Prophylactic Anakinra to Prevent Neurotoxicity in Patients Receiving Anti-CD19 CAR T-Cell Therapy for Relapsed or Refractory Lymphoma: Final Results from Cohort 2

Background: Whilst tocilizumab is effective in the management of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) associated cytokine release syndrome (CRS), there are no targeted therapies for immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). Rates of severe (≥ grade 3) ICANS remain high with axicabtagene (axi-cel) and brexucabtagene (brexu-cel) at > 30%. Preclinical models have shown that anakinra, an IL-1 receptor antagonist, reduced CAR-mediated immune toxicities without affecting efficacy. Based on these data, we conducted a phase 2 trial of prophylactic anakinra in patients receiving commercial anti-CD19 CAR-T for r/r B-cell lymphoma (NCT04148430). The study had sequential enrollment in 2 independent cohorts. We recently reported results from cohort 1 in which patients received subcutaneous (SC) anakinra from day 2 until at least day 10 post-CAR infusion and showed that prophylactic anakinra reduced the rate of severe ICANS to 9.7% (Park, Nat Med, 2023). Herein, we report results from cohort 2 of the study where we utilized anakinra as a complete prophylactic strategy.