COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Axillary and Cervical Lymphadenopathy in Patients with Current or Prior Breast Cancer and Other Malignancies: Cross-Sectional Imaging Findings on MRI,CT, and PET-CT

Breast radiologists are increasingly seeing patients with axillary adenopathy related to COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccination can cause levels I–III axillary as well as cervical lymphadenopathy. Appropriate management of vaccine-related adenopathy may vary depending on clinical context. In patients with current or past history of malignancy, vaccine-related adenopathy can be indistinguishable from nodal metastasis. This article presents imaging findings of oncology patients with adenopathy seen in the axilla or neck on cross-sectional imaging (breast MRI, CT, or PET-CT) after COVID-19 vaccination. Management approach and rationale is discussed, along with consideration on strategies to minimize false positives in vaccinated cancer patients. Time interval between vaccination and adenopathy seen on breast MRI, CT, or PET-CT is also reported.     

Vaccination strategies in follicular lymphoma

Follicular lymphoma is one of the most immuneresponsive cancers. The clonal tumor immunoglobulin expressed on the surface of malignant B cells, termed idiotype, has been used as a tumor-specific antigen in therapeutic vaccination strategies for follicular lymphoma and other B-cell malignancies. A number of phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials have established the safety and immunogenicity of idiotype vaccine in follicular lymphoma. Three randomized, double-blind, controlled phase 3 clinical trials have recently been completed to definitively evaluate the clinical benefit of idiotype vaccine in follicular lymphoma. This review focuses on the results of these idiotype vaccine trials and discusses poten tial strategies to enhance the efficacy of vaccines in the future.     

Adoptive immunotherapy with antigen-specific T cells in myeloma: a model of tumor-specific donor lymphocyte infusion

Although partial remissions rates of up to 60% are obtained with conventional therapeutic regimens, multiple myeloma is essentially an incurable disease with a median survival of approximately 30 months. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) results in a high percentage of complete remissions (CRs), but it can be associated with significant treatment-related mortality. Recent clinical studies have shown that highly immunosuppressive, yet nonmyeloablative, doses of fludarabine-based chemotherapy can result in alloengraftment. However, even with a reduction in treatment-related mortality, success with allogeneic SCT is limited by the significant risk of relapse. The goal of the strategy described is to transfer tumor antigen-specific immunity induced in the stem cell donor to the allogeneic SCT recipient to reduce relapse. Donors are immunized with a well-defined vaccine, specific for the patient's tumor. The allogeneic SCT is performed with a conditioning regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide and fludarabine, and the stem cell source is blood mobilized with filgrastim, which could potentially enhance the transfer of a larger number of tumor-specific T cells in the allograft, as compared to bone marrow. Donor immunization with myeloma idiotype protein in the setting of a nonmyeloablative SCT may represent a novel strategy for the treatment of myeloma.     

Managing the toxicities of CAR T‐cell therapy

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‐cell therapy has the potential to revolutionize the management of B‐cell lymphomas and possibly other cancers. Two anti‐CD19 CAR T‐cell products, axicabtagene ciloleucel and tisagenlecleucel, have been approved for the management of relapsed/refractory large B‐cell lymphoma after two lines of systemic therapy. Additional trials are ongoing to evaluate these and other CAR T products at earlier stages of the disease course as well as in other lymphomas. While the potential to induce durable remissions with a single CAR T‐cell infusion even in patients who are chemorefractory has generated much enthusiasm in the field, practitioners need to familiarize themselves with the unique toxicities associated with these therapies. This review will discuss the grading and management of the two most common toxicities, cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune effector cell‐associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), observed acutely after this therapy. In addition, late toxicities including prolonged cytopenias and on‐target off‐tumor effects will be reviewed.