Patient characteristics
| Characteristic | Bridging therapy (N=92) | No bridging therapy (N=143) | P value |
| Age (years)—median (range) | 63.1 (19–82) | 63.2 (19–82) | 0.900 |
| Female sex | 36 (39.1%) | 55 (38.5%) | 0.918 |
| White race‡ | 79 (88.8%) | 138 (96.5%) | 0.027 |
| Married/life partner | 65 (70.7%) | 98 (68.5%) | 0.731 |
| CAR T-cell product | <0.001 | ||
| Axicabtagene ciloleucel | 60 (65.2%) | 123 (86.0%) | |
| Tisagenlecleucel | 29 (31.5%) | 6 (4.2%) | |
| Axicabtagene ciloleucel combined with immunotherapy | 1 (1.1%) | 8 (5.6%) | |
| Brexucabtagene autoleucel | 2 (2.2%) | 5 (3.5%) | |
| Lisocabtagene maraleucel | 0 (0%) | 1 (0.7%) | |
| Lymphoma subtype | 0.011 | ||
| DLBCL/grade 3B follicular lymphoma | 46 (50.0%) | 61 (42.7%) | |
| Indolent lymphoma transformed to DLBCL§ | 15 (15.3%) | 25 (17.5%) | |
| HGBCL with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements | 17 (18.5%) | 23 (16.1%) | |
| Follicular lymphoma | 2 (2.2%) | 20 (14.0%) | |
| Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma | 3 (3.3%) | 9 (6.3%) | |
| Other | 9 (9.8%) | 5 (3.5%) | |
| ECOG performance status¶ | 0.943 | ||
| 0–1 | 75 (83.3%) | 118 (83.7%) | |
| 2–4 | 15 (16.7%) | 23 (16.3%) | |
| Bridging therapy regimen | N/A | ||
| Steroids | 25 (27.2%) | N/A | |
| Chemotherapy | 48 (52.2%) | N/A | |
| Other systemic therapy** | 10 (10.9%) | N/A | |
| Radiation | 9 (9.8%) | N/A | |
| Pretreatment lactate dehydrogenase (U/L)—median (range) | 275 (122–1722) | 205 (85–1272) | 0.004 |
| Pretreatment platelet count (K/µL)—median (range) | 133 (10–548) | 165 (15–576) | 0.112 |
| Pretreatment CRP (mg/L)—median (range)* | 16.2 (0.2–300) | 17.2 (0.3–300) | 0.438 |
| Pretreatment ferritin (µg/L)—median (range)† | 741.5 (1–7965) | 560 (13.4–29,541) | 0.985 |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index score—median (range) | 0 (0–3) | 0 (0–3) | 0.625 |
| Prior lines of therapy—median (range) | 3 (0–8) | 2 (0–10) | 0.533 |
| Prior autologous stem cell transplant | 29 (31.5%) | 36 (25.2%) | 0.288 |
| Days from apheresis to CAR T-cell therapy—median (range) | 27 (14–60) | 26 (17–330) | 0.604 |
| Days from relapse to CAR T-cell therapy—median (range) | 60.5 (13–224) | 55.5 (11–166) | 0.055 |
*1 patient with missing data
†15 patients with missing data
‡3 patients either had missing data or declined to report for race
§Richter’s transformation was classified under other
¶4 patients with missing data
**Other systemic therapies included lenalidomide, ibrutinib, pembrolizumab, venetoclax, venetoclax plus ibrutinib, and polatuzumab vedotin (with steroids)
CAR, chimeric antigen receptor; CRP, C-reactive protein; DLBCL, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; ECOG, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.