Prognostic value of the International Metabolic Prognostic Index for lymphoma patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy

Purpose Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CART) prolongs survival for patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The recently introduced International Metabolic Prognostic Index (IMPI) was shown to improve prognostication in the first-line treatment of large B-cell lymphoma. Here, we investigate the prognostic value of the IMPI for progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the setting of CD19 CART. Methods Consecutively treated patients with baseline 18 F-FDG PET/CT imaging and follow-up imaging at 30 days after CART were included. IMPI is composed of age, stage, and metabolic tumor volume (MTV) at baseline and was compared with the International Prognostic Index (IPI). Both indices were grouped into quartiles, as previously described for IPI. In addition, the continuous IMPI was subdivided into tertiaries for better separation of risk groups. Overall response rate (ORR), depth of response (DoR), and PFS were determined based on Lugano criteria. Proportional Cox regression analysis studied association of IMPI and IPI with PFS and OS. Results Thirty-nine patients were included. The IPI was 1 in 23%, 2 in 21%, 3 in 26%, 4 in 21%, and 5 in 10% of the patients. IMPI low risk , IMPI intermediate risk , and IMPI high risk patients had 30-day ORR of 69%, 62%, and 62% and 30-day DoR of − 67%, − 66%, and − 54% with a PFS of 187 days, 97 days, and 87 days, respectively. ORR and DoR showed no correlation with lower IMPI ( r = 0.065, p = 0.697). Dividing patients into three risk groups showed a significant trend for PFS stratification ( p = 0.030), while IPI did not ( p = 0.133). Neither IPI nor IMPI yielded a significant association with OS after CART (both p > 0.05). Conclusion In the context of CART, the IMPI yielded prognostic value regarding PFS estimation. In contrast with IMPI in the first-line DLBCL setting, we did not observe a significant association of IMPI at baseline with OS after CART.