Vagal Nerve Activity Predicts Prognosis in Diffused Large B-Cell Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma

Or Atar, Ron Ram, Irit Avivi, Odelia Amit, Roy Vitkon, Efrat Luttwak, Yael Bar-On, Yori Gidron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study examined the prognostic role of vagal nerve activity in patients with relapsed/refractory diffused large B-cell lymphoma (R/R-DLBCL) treated with chimeric antigen receptor cell therapy (CAR-T) and in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) undergoing an autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AutoHCT). Participants included 29 patients with R/R-DLBCL and 37 patients with MM. Inclusion criteria were: (1) age over 18; (2) diagnosed with DLBCL or MM; (3) being treated with CAR-T or AutoHCT; and (4) having an ECG prior to cell transfusion. The predictor was vagal nerve activity indexed by heart rate variability (HRV) and obtained retroactively from 10 s ECGs. The main endpoint for R/R-DLBCL was overall survival (OS), and for MM the endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Data of 122 patients were obtained, 66 of whom were included in the study. In DLBCL, HRV significantly predicted OS independently of confounders (e.g., performance status, disease status at cell therapy), hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence interval (HR = 0.20; 95%CI: 0.06–0.69). The prognostic role of disease severity was moderated by HRV: among severely disease patients, 100% died with low HRV, while only 37.5% died with high HRV. In MM, HRV significantly predicted PFS (HR = 0.19; 95%CI: 0.04–0.90) independently of confounders. Vagal nerve activity independently predicts prognosis in patients with R/R-DLBCL and with MM undergoing cell therapy. High vagal activity overrides the prognostic role of disease severity. Testing the effects of vagal nerve activation on prognosis in blood cancers is recommended.

Original languageEnglish
Article number908
JournalJournal of Clinical Medicine
Volume12
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 23 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

  • cancer prognosis
  • diffuse large-B cell lymphoma
  • multiple myeloma
  • vagal nerve activity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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