HSS pooled analysis: CAR T-cell therapy cut lupus activity score from 13.0 to 2.2 in 243 patients
A systematic review by Hospital for Special Surgery covered 243 people with refractory lupus; most received personalized CD19-targeted CAR T cells. Mostly mild CRS, authors report.
Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) have published a pooled analysis of CAR T-cell therapy in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), according to newswise.com. The study, "CAR T-Cell Therapy in SLE: A Pooled Analysis," was presented at ACR Convergence 2026, the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. It is a systematic review of 31 studies involving 243 people with lupus. newswise.com
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Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue, causing widespread inflammation that can damage organs, joints and skin. The disease has no cure, and some patients do not respond adequately to available therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy was originally developed for cancer and is now being investigated in SLE, including approaches that target B cells involved in the autoimmune response.
Analysis design and efficacy
All participants had previously tried at least two immunosuppressants, and outcomes were evaluated over a two-year period. Most were treated with personalized CD19-targeted CAR T therapies made from their own immune cells.
The mean SLEDAI score, a measure of lupus disease activity, decreased from 13.0 at baseline to 2.2 at six months after treatment. According to the authors, the therapy showed consistent efficacy in patients with high initial disease activity, with near-complete resolution of symptoms by six months. newswise.com
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Safety findings
Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurred in 64% of participants, and 61% of the 243 had low-grade CRS (grade 1 or 2). Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) was reported in 5% of participants. Severe (grade 3 or 4) infections occurred in 5%, and hematologic toxicity lasting more than 28 days in 6%.
The authors note that individual studies of CAR T-cell therapy in SLE remain limited by small sample size, which makes efficacy and safety hard to assess. The pooled analysis brings the available evidence together for refractory SLE. Larger prospective studies are needed to understand long-term outcomes and to identify which patients are most likely to benefit.
Anca D. Askanase, MD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at HSS and senior author, said the findings may help inform patient selection for future studies and, ultimately, clinical practice. newswise.com
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