Developing Infrastructure: Managing Patients With Cancer Undergoing CAR T-Cell Therapy
.

BACKGROUND: The introduction of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has created challenges and opportunities for nurses. Clinical nurses must be educated on new treatment modalities to recognize toxicity symptoms and to support the therapy moving forward. 
. OBJECTIVES: This article will discuss nursing leadership and interventions to standardize care and ensure patient safety while receiving CAR T cells. 
. METHODS: Using evolving experience, an interprofessional team created standards of care and identified common toxicities and best practices for their management. Electronic documentation forms were designed, which led to the development of a new research infrastructure to care for patients.
. FINDINGS: The ability to safely manage patients on CAR T-cell treatments has improved. The new infrastructure supported clinicians and scientists in transforming the outcomes of diseases with bleak prognoses, which is possible only with strong nursing leadership.
.

Efficacy and toxicity management of 19-28z CAR T cell therapy in B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

We report on 16 patients with relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) that we treated with autologous T cells expressing the 19-28z chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) specific to the CD19 antigen. The overall complete response rate was 88%, which allowed us to transition most of these patients to a standard-of-care allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT). This therapy was as effective in high-risk patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph(+)) disease as in those with relapsed disease after previous allo-SCT. Through systematic analysis of clinical data and serum cytokine levels over the first 21 days after T cell infusion, we have defined diagnostic criteria for a severe cytokine release syndrome (sCRS), with the goal of better identifying the subset of patients who will likely require therapeutic intervention with corticosteroids or interleukin-6 receptor blockade to curb the sCRS. Additionally, we found that serum C-reactive protein, a readily available laboratory study, can serve as a reliable indicator for the severity of the CRS. Together, our data provide strong support for conducting a multicenter phase 2 study to further evaluate 19-28z CAR T cells in B-ALL and a road map for patient management at centers now contemplating the use of CAR T cell therapy.