Passive pre-exposure immunization by tixagevimab/cilgavimab in patients with hematological malignancy and COVID-19: matched-paired analysis in the EPICOVIDEHA registry

Francesco Marchesi, Jon Salmanton-García*, Caterina Buquicchio, Federico Itri, Caroline Besson, Julio Dávila-Valls, Sonia Martín-Pérez, Luana Fianchi, Laman Rahimli, Giuseppe Tarantini, Federica Irene Grifoni, Mariarita Sciume, Jorge Labrador, Raul Cordoba, Alberto López-García, Nicola S. Fracchiolla, Francesca Farina, Emanuele Ammatuna, Antonella Cingolani, Daniel García-BordalloStefanie K. Gräfe, Yavuz M. Bilgin, Michelina Dargenio, Tomás José González-López, Anna Guidetti, Tobias Lahmer, Esperanza Lavilla-Rubira, Gustavo Adolfo Méndez, Lucia Prezioso, Martin Schönlein, Jaap Van Doesum, Dominik Wolf, Ditte Stampe Hersby, Ferenc Magyari, Jens Van Praet, Verena Petzer, Carlo Tascini, Iker Falces-Romero, Andreas Glenthøj, Oliver A. Cornely, Livio Pagano

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalComment/Letter to the editorAcademicpeer-review

    16 Citations (Scopus)
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    Abstract

    Only few studies have analyzed the efficacy of tixagevimab/cilgavimab to prevent severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and related complications in hematologic malignancies (HM) patients. Here, we report cases of breakthrough COVID-19 after prophylactic tixagevimab/cilgavimab from the EPICOVIDEHA registry). We identified 47 patients that had received prophylaxis with tixagevimab/cilgavimab in the EPICOVIDEHA registry. Lymphoproliferative disorders (44/47, 93.6%) were the main underlying HM. SARS-CoV-2 strains were genotyped in 7 (14.9%) cases only, and all belonged to the omicron variant. Forty (85.1%) patients had received vaccinations prior to tixagevimab/cilgavimab, the majority of them with at least two doses. Eleven (23.4%) patients had a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection, 21 (44.7%) a moderate infection, while 8 (17.0%) had severe infection and 2 (4.3%) critical. Thirty-six (76.6%) patients were treated, either with monoclonal antibodies, antivirals, corticosteroids, or with combination schemes. Overall, 10 (21.3%) were admitted to a hospital. Among these, two (4.3%) were transferred to intensive care unit and one (2.1%) of them died. Our data seem to show that the use of tixagevimab/cilgavimab may lead to a COVID-19 severity reduction in HM patients; however, further studies should incorporate further HM patients to confirm the best drug administration strategies in immunocompromised patients.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number32
    JournalJournal of Hematology and Oncology
    Volume16
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec-2023

    Keywords

    • COVID-19
    • Hematologic malignancies
    • Passive immunization
    • Tixagevimab/cilgavimab

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