Dr. Brody on Tolerability of In-Situ Vaccines in Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Joshua Brody, MD, director, Lymphoma program, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses the utility of in-situ vaccines as a novel way to harness immune response and extend the reach of immunotherapy in patients with advanced-stage indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Similar to preventive vaccines, the therapeutic vaccine has proved to be safe, says Brody. Some patients who receive these therapeutic vaccines develop transient fevers that last about 1 day. However, if patients take acetaminophen and drink fluids, the fevers are transient, even in those who experience high fevers, adds Brody. Most fevers took place after 1 of the injections rather than throughout the time they were administered.

To date, no patients have developed any autoimmune-like adverse event (AE), which is often a concern with other immunotherapies, mostly with checkpoint inhibitors where autoimmune-like colitis, dermatitis, hepatitis, and pneumonitis can occur, according to Brody. Notably, those AEs have not been reported with the vaccine approach. Other inflammatory-like immune AEs that are typically seen with CAR T-cell therapy, such as cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity, have not been observed with this approach either. Overall, the therapeutic vaccine has been safe, concludes Brody.