Patients With Leukemia Have Higher Infection Risk During Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy

THURSDAY, Aug. 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) — For patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), regular treatment with immunoglobulin replacement therapy (IgRT) is associated with an increased incidence of infections, according to a study published online July 30 in Blood Advances.

Sara Carrillo De Albornoz, M.P.H., from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues described IgRT treatment patterns in a large, real-world cohort of patients with CLL and explored the association between IgRT and serious infections in a retrospective longitudinal study of linked hospital data. A total of 6,217 patients with CLL between 2008 and 2022 were included in the study.

The researchers found that the monthly proportion of patients experiencing serious infections doubled and the proportion of patients receiving any IgRT quadrupled during the 14-year follow-up. The median time from CLL diagnosis to death was 10 years; a higher mortality rate was seen for patients with versus those without serious infections (0.090 versus 0.008). Overall, 12.1 and 8.4 percent of patients received IgRT and received IgRT regularly, respectively. Compared with periods without IgRT, infection incidence was higher during periods of IgRT among patients who received IgRT regularly (0.056 versus 0.038). Serious infections were associated with IgRT initiation, reinitiation, and cessation.

“The cost of this therapy, its burden to patients, and the patterns of use and infection we observed are a clear call for better guidelines on the use of immunoglobulins,” Carrillo De Albornoz said in a statement. “Although there are criteria for access to government-funded therapy in this population in Australia, clear clinical guidelines are lacking.”

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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