Bendamustine lymphodepletion before axicabtagene ciloleucel is safe and associates with reduced inflammatory cytokines.

"Conflict-of-interest dislcoure: G. Ghilardi served as a scientific consultant for viTToria Biotherapeutics. M.R. holds patents related to CD19 CARTs; served as a consultant for NanoString, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Scaylite, Bayer, and AbClon; receives research funding from AbClon, NanoString, Oxford NanoImaging, viTToria Biotherapeutics, Curiox Biosystems, and Beckman Coulter; and is the scientific founder of viTToria Biotherapeutics. J.S. received research funding from Incyte, Merck, and TG Therapeutics; reports consultancy for, and having received research funding from, Bristol Myers Squibb, Seagen Inc, Pharmacyclics, and AstraZeneca; reports consultancy for ADC Therapeutics, Adaptive, Atara, Genmab, and Imbrium. E.A.C. served as a consultant for Novartis, BeiGene, Kite Pharma, Tessa, and Juno/Bristol Myers Squibb. S.K.B. served as a consultant to Acrotech, Kyowa Kirin, Daiichi Sankyo, and Seagen. S.D.N. received research funding from Pharmacyclics, Roche, Rafael, and FortySeven/Gilead. D.J.L. received research funding from Curis, Takeda, and Triphase; and served on the board of directors, advisory committees, or data and safety monitoring board for Incyte, ADC Therapeutics, Karyopharm, and MorphoSys. S.J.S. served as a consultant to AstraZeneca, BeiGene, Celgene, Genentech, Genmab, Fate Therapeutics, Roche, Incyte, Juno Therapeutics, Legend Biotech, Loxo Oncology, MorphoSys, Mustang Biotech, Nordic Nanovector, Novartis, and Regeneron; received research funding from AbbVie, Adaptive Biotechnologies, Celgene, DTRM Biopharma, Genentech, Roche, Juno Therapeutics, Merck, Novartis, Incyte, Pharmacyclics, and TG Therapeutics; received honoraria from Celgene and Novartis; and holds patents related to CD19 CARTs and autologous costimulated T cells. D.L.P. reports membership on an entity's board of directors or advisory committees for the National Marrow Donor Program; reports membership on an entity's board of directors or advisory committees for Kite/Gilead, Janssen, Incyte, DeCART Therapeutics, American Society of Hematology, and Novartis; reports patents with, and royalties from, Novartis and Tmunity; is a current equity holder in publicly traded company (Genentech), and ended employment in the past 24 months at Genentech; received honoraria from the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and Wiley and Sons Publishing; and received research funding from Novartis. A.G. received research support (via institution) from Janssen, Novartis, Tmunity, and CRISPR Therapeutics; reports consultancies for, and honoraria from, Janssen, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, and Legend Bio; and reports data and safety monitoring board membership for Janssen, AbbVie, and Regeneron. The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests."

"This work was supported by the 10.13039/100012200Laffey-McHugh Foundation (M.R. and J.S.), the Berman and Maguire Funds for Lymphoma Research at Penn (S.J.S.), the SITC-10.13039/100014468Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Adverse Events in Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Fellowship (G. Ghilardi), the Mario Luvini fellowship grant Fondazione Ticinese per la Ricerca sul Cancro (G. Ghilardi), and the 10.13039/100005189Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar in Clinical Research award grant #2329-20 (A.G.)."