I’m thrilled to share that my paper on Cytokine Storms with Carl June, MD, was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine! A “cytokine storm” is an immune response that spirals out of control and occurs with Castleman disease, CART, severe COVID19, and other conditions. We developed the first unifying definition of a cytokine storm, highlighted the most up-to-date treatment approaches for this deadly syndrome, and detailed critical steps to save lives.
We define a cytokine storm as requiring elevated circulating cytokine levels, acute systemic inflammatory symptoms, and secondary organ dysfunction beyond what could be attributed to a normal response to a pathogen, if a pathogen is present. Fortunately, a number of treatments currently exist that can target various aspects of cytokine storms, but important work is needed to advance research and discoveries in order to get the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.
As a physician-scientist who has dedicated my life to discovering treatments for cytokine storms and a patient who has nearly died five times battling cytokine storms, I’m hopeful that this work will help patients like me. Check out the full-text of the article here.
Check out the University of Pennsylvania press release here.
We have put together a discussion board for anyone who wants to comment about this paper and discuss cytokine storms. If you’d like to be a part of this conversation, please register for this discussion board here.
