Table 1 Population characteristics by EN Disease involvement at last assessment before CAR-T therapy.

From: CAR T-cell therapy response varies by extranodal disease site in large B-cell lymphoma

Characteristic

N

Overall N = 283

Exclusive ND N = 64

Exclusive EN N = 66

Concomitant EN and ND N = 133

No evidence of disease (CR) N = 20

p-value for comparison of ND vs. EN vs concomitant EN + ND*

Median Age [years]

283

66 (56, 72)

64 (55, 70)

66 (55, 70)

67 (56, 74)

69 (57, 77)

0.2

Sex

283

     

0.8

 Male

 

184 (65%)

44 (69%)

42 (64%)

90 (68%)

8 (40%)

 

 Female

 

99 (35%)

20 (31%)

24 (36%)

43 (32%)

12 (60%)

 

Karnofsky Performance Status

283

     

0.009

 >=90

 

80 (28%)

27 (42%)

19 (29%)

28 (21%)

6 (30%)

 

 <90

 

203 (72%)

37 (58%)

47 (71%)

105 (79%)

14 (70%)

 

LBCL subtypes

283

     

0.12

 DLBCL NOS

 

219 (77%)

53 (83%)

52 (79%)

98 (74%)

16 (80%)

 

 High-grade B-cell lymphoma

 

44 (16%)

4 (6.3%)

11 (17%)

25 (19%)

4 (20%)

 

 Other LBCL†

 

20 (7.1%)

7 (11%)

3 (4.5%)

10 (7.5%)

0 (0%)

 

Transformed LBCL

279

     

0.12

 De-novo LBCL

 

178 (64%)

45 (70%)

45 (69%)

75 (57%)

13 (68%)

 

 Transformed LBCL

 

101 (36%)

19 (30%)

20 (31%)

56 (43%)

6 (32%)

 

 Unknown

 

4

0

1

2

1

 

Cell of origin

273

     

0.6

 Non-GCB

 

132 (48%)

26 (43%)

34 (52%)

60 (47%)

12 (67%)

 

 GCB

 

141 (52%)

34 (57%)

32 (48%)

69 (53%)

6 (33%)

 

 Unknown

 

10

4

0

4

2

 

Double hit status

263

     

0.2

 Not Double/Triple Hit

 

223 (85%)

56 (92%)

53 (87%)

100 (81%)

14 (78%)

 

 Double/Triple Hit

 

40 (15%)

5 (8.2%)

8 (13%)

23 (19%)

4 (22%)

 

 Unknown

 

20

3

5

10

2

 

MYC rearrangement

263

64 (24%)

6 (9.8%)

18 (30%)

34 (28%)

6 (33%)

0.009

 Unknown

 

20

3

5

10

2

 

Stage at apheresis

281

     

<0.001

 <=II

 

81 (29%)

33 (52%)

18 (28%)

23 (17%)

7 (35%)

 

 III-IV

 

200 (71%)

31 (48%)

47 (72%)

109 (83%)

13 (65%)

 

 Unknown

 

2

0

1

1

0

 

Pre-lymphodepletion LDH

283

     

0.001

 normal

 

169 (60%)

46 (72%)

44 (67%)

63 (47%)

16 (80%)

 

 elevated

 

114 (40%)

18 (28%)

22 (33%)

70 (53%)

4 (20%)

 

 Metabolic Tumor volume (last assessment) [cm3]

244

23 (1, 142)

15 (1, 53)

3 (0, 62)

91 (16, 369)

0 (0, 0)

<0.001

 Unknown

 

39

10

10

15

4

 

Pre-apheresis treatment lines

280

     

0.088

 <=3 lines

 

192 (69%)

49 (78%)

38 (59%)

90 (68%)

15 (75%)

 

 > 3 lines

 

88 (31%)

14 (22%)

26 (41%)

43 (32%)

5 (25%)

 

 Unknown

 

3

1

2

0

0

 

Previous autologous transplantation

283

55 (19%)

15 (23%)

16 (24%)

20 (15%)

4 (20%)

0.2

Pre-apheresis primary refractory disease

283

114 (40%)

29 (45%)

18 (27%)

60 (45%)

7 (35%)

0.038

Bridging#

283

231 (82%)

48 (75%)

52 (79%)

113 (85%)

18 (90%)

0.2

Bridging type#

283

     

0.006

 No bridging

 

52 (18%)

16 (25%)

14 (21%)

20 (15%)

2 (10%)

 

 Systemic bridging / steroids

 

181 (64%)

30 (47%)

38 (58%)

97 (73%)

16 (80%)

 

 Non-systemic bridging

 

50 (18%)

18 (28%)

14 (21%)

16 (12%)

2 (10%)

 

Pre-infusion disease status

283

     

<0.001

 CR

 

21 (7.4%)

2 (3.1%)

1 (1.5%)

0 (0%)

18 (90%)

 

 PR

 

99 (35%)

26 (41%)

37 (56%)

34 (26%)

2 (10%)

 

 SD/PD

 

163 (58%)

36 (56%)

28 (42%)

99 (74%)

0 (0%)

 

CAR-T Product

283

     

>0.9

 Axicabtagene ciloleucel

 

163 (58%)

39 (61%)

38 (58%)

77 (58%)

9 (45%)

 

 Tisagenlecleucel

 

67 (24%)

13 (20%)

16 (24%)

32 (24%)

6 (30%)

 

 Lisocabtagene maraleucel

 

53 (19%)

12 (19%)

12 (18%)

24 (18%)

5 (25%)

 

CRP at infusion [mg/dl]

280

1.2 (0.5, 3.5)

0.9 (0.5, 2.7)

0.7 (0.5, 1.8)

2.1 (0.8, 7.1)

0.5 (0.4, 0.9)

<0.001

 Unknown

 

3

1

1

1

0

 

Ferritin at infusion [ng/ml]

280

270 (115, 695)

180 (109, 460)

205 (80, 530)

453 (143, 1,077)

246 (81, 464)

<0.001

 Unknown

 

3

0

1

2

0

 

IL6 at infusion [pg/ml]

220

9 (5, 21)

8 (5, 13)

6 (3, 12)

13 (5, 33)

5 (3, 8)

<0.001

 Unknown

 

63

12

20

27

4

 

Median (Q1, Q3); n (%)

  1. *Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test; Pearson’s Chi-squared test; Fisher’s exact test; P-value reflects the comparison between exclusive ND, exclusive EN, and concomitant EN and ND disease.
  2. #Bridging therapy was defined as any systemic or localized treatment administered between leukapheresis and lymphodepleting chemotherapy with the intent to control disease before CAR-T infusion. Systemic bridging included chemotherapy, targeted agents, corticosteroids, or immunotherapy, while localized therapy included radiotherapy or intrathecal chemotherapy. The decision to administer bridging therapy and the choice of regimen were at the discretion of the treating physician, guided by disease burden, progression risk, and institutional practice. Further description of bridging therapies is provided in Table S4.
  3. †Other LBCL categories include: primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (n = 10), EBV-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (n = 6), T-cell/histiocyte-rich B-cell lymphoma (n = 3), intravascular large B-cell lymphoma (n = 1).
  4. EN extranodal, ND nodal, LBCL large B-cell lymphoma, DLBCL diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, GCB germinal center B-cell, LDH lactate dehydrogenase, CR complete response, PR partial response, SD stable disease, PD progressive disease.
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