BRITISH JOURNAL OF HAEMETOLOGY

Hoiland RL, Stukas S, Cooper J, Thiara S, Chen LYC, Biggs CM, Hay K, Lee AYY, Shojania K, Abdulla A, Wellington CL and Sekhon MS.

Br J Haematol. 2020 Jun 25.

doi: 10.1111/bjh.16961

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.16961

Abstract

Coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) severity appears to parallel the host immune response, with a subset of patients developing COVID‐19 cytokine storm syndrome (CSS).(1) Serum inflammatory cytokines are elevated in COVID‐19,(2–5) and interleukin (IL)‐6 appears to play a central role in COVID‐19 related CSS.(6–8) Based on the success of IL‐6 receptor blockade for chimeric antigen receptor T‐cell therapy associated cytokine release syndrome (CAR T‐cell CRS), similar strategies using tocilizumab are being investigated in COVID‐19.