The following is a summary of the “B-cell malignancies and COVID-19: a narrative review,” published in the March 2023 issue of Clinical Microbiology and Infections Disease by Paz et al.
To evaluate COVID-19’s global effect on B-cell malignancy patients undergoing treatment with chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) immunotherapy for relapsed or refractory disease.
Researchers looked through MEDLINE for articles published between January 1950 and July 2022 that addressed the topic of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or COVID-19 management in patients receiving treatment for B-cell malignancy or CAR-T cell therapy.
COVID-19 is described, along with its prevalence and clinical manifestations in B-cell malignancy and CAR-T cell recipients. The success of vaccines in these categories is tallied. Finally, they propose an evaluation of treatment strategies, including neutralizing monoclonal antibodies, convalescent plasma therapy, direct-acting antiviral drugs, corticosteroids, and immunomodulators, in light of the escalating waves of worrying variants.
Because of the prolonged SARS-CoV-2 shedding, preventative vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is still recommended for patients with B-cell malignancy, and controlling viral replication is an integral part of managing COVID-19. The most effective current treatments are passive immunotherapy (monoclonal neutralizing antibody and convalescent plasma therapy) and direct-active antivirals like remdesivir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir. Assessing COVID-19 therapeutics in B-cell-depleted populations requires real-world data and subgroup analyses in larger trials.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X22005444
