Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 26, 2022; 10(21): 7502-7508
Published online Jul 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i21.7502
Refractory lymphoma treated with chimeric antigen receptor T cells combined with programmed cell death-1 inhibitor: A case report
Cang-Jian Zhang, Jun-Yu Zhang, Lin-Jie Li, Neng-Wen Xu
Cang-Jian Zhang, Jun-Yu Zhang, Lin-Jie Li, Neng-Wen Xu, Department of Hematopathology, Lishui Municipal Central Hospital, Lishui 323000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang CJ designed the report and wrote the paper; Li LJ collected the patient’s clinical data; Xu NW analyzed the data; Zhang JY revised the paper; all authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jun-Yu Zhang, Doctor, Chief Doctor, Department of Hematopathology, Lishui Municipal Central Hospital, No. 289 Kuocang Road, Lishui 323000, Zhejiang Province, China. zhangjunyu815@163.com
Received: December 20, 2021
Peer-review started: December 20, 2021
First decision: April 8, 2022
Revised: April 17, 2022
Accepted: June 3, 2022
Article in press: June 3, 2022
Published online: July 26, 2022
Processing time: 202 Days and 20 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a common aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), accounting for 30%-40% of adult NHL. Primary testicular (PT) lymphoma is an uncommon extranodal disease representing approximately 1%-2% of lymphoma. Approximately 30%–40% of patients are refractory to frontline therapy or relapse after complete remission. Refractory DLBCL responds poorly to other lines of chemotherapy, and experiences short-term survival.

CASE SUMMARY

We present a 41-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with PT-DLBCL. Further disease progression was observed after multiline chemotherapy. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) therapy salvaged the patient. Unfortunately, a new mass was observed in the right adrenal area after six months. The patient was administered programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitor therapy and maintained progression-free survival at more than 17 mo of follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Our findings support the potential benefit of CAR-T combined with PD-1 inhibitor therapies in this type of relapsed and refractory PT-DLBCL.

Keywords: Refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; Programmed cell death protein-1 inhibitor; Chimeric antigen receptor T cells; Case report

Core Tip: Primary testicular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an uncommon extranodal disease of lymphomas. Refractory DLBCL responds poorly to other lines of chemotherapy, and is associated with short-term survival. Herein, we report one rare case of chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) combined with programmed cell-death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitor to treat refractory DLBCL in a 41-year-old male. Our findings support the potential benefit of CAR-T combined with PD-1 inhibitor therapies in this type of refractory DLBCL.