{"id":397706,"date":"2026-08-04T20:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/397706\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T20:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:44:12","slug":"what-is-a-cytokine-storm-ut-md-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/397706\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a\u202fcytokine storm? | UT MD Anderson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several different cancer treatments<\/a> can cause cytokine storms, including immunotherapies<\/a> like CAR T cell therapy<\/a> and bispecific antibodies<\/a>, and targeted therapies<\/a> like menin inhibitors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what is a cytokine storm, and is it the same thing as cytokine release syndrome? How serious is it, and which patients are most likely to develop this potential side effect<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Read on, to learn the answers to these and other questions.<\/p>\n

What is a cytokine storm?<\/p>\n

A cytokine storm is a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when the immune system releases too many cytokines all at once. It causes a severe inflammatory<\/a> reaction in your body.<\/p>\n

The release of cytokines is part of your body\u2019s normal defense system. When that process gets out of control, it\u2019s called a cytokine storm.<\/p>\n

What is a cytokine?<\/p>\n

Cytokines are natural proteins secreted by various cells, including a type of immune cell called a T cell<\/a>. They act as a stimulant to fire up the immune system. It\u2019s why you develop a fever when you get an infection<\/a>, and why your hand or leg swells up when you get an injury there.<\/p>\n

Is a cytokine storm the same thing as cytokine release syndrome?<\/p>\n

Yes and no. Cytokine storms can have several different causes, including a severe infection. Cytokine release syndrome is just the term we typically use when a storm is directly related to a patient receiving certain cancer therapies. So, cytokine release syndrome is a subtype of cytokine storms.<\/p>\n

What are the first signs of a cytokine storm?<\/p>\n

Early signs of a cytokine storm include:<\/p>\n

Body aches
\nChills
\nFatigue
\nFever<\/p>\n

But these can also be symptoms of the flu, a cold<\/a>, or some other type of infection. So, they are not specific to cytokine storms.<\/p>\n

Later symptoms can include sudden changes in blood pressure<\/a> (either high or low) and a drop in blood-oxygen levels (hypoxia).<\/p>\n

Are there any symptoms that are specific to cytokine storms?<\/p>\n

No. That\u2019s why physicians must act based on whatever they see. We don\u2019t want to administer certain drugs too soon, because they can mask a fever. So, we have to rule out an infection first. Usually, we can tell within 24 hours if it\u2019s that or something else.<\/p>\n

What triggers cytokine storms?<\/p>\n

Here at UT MD Anderson, they\u2019re usually a side effect of cancer treatment. Cytokine storms are pretty common with CAR T cell therapy, and to a lesser extent, with bispecific antibodies and menin inhibitors.<\/p>\n

But cytokine storms can also sometimes be caused by systemic infections, like COVID-19, if the body responds too strongly to a threat.<\/p>\n

Which patients are most likely to experience cytokine storms?<\/p>\n

Anyone who receives one of the therapies mentioned above could potentially develop one. Currently, they are used to treat certain types of leukemia<\/a> and lymphoma<\/a>, so patients with one of those diseases are probably the most at risk.<\/p>\n

How are cytokine storms typically treated?<\/p>\n

With cancer patients, there are three options.<\/p>\n

Pausing therapy: We\u2019ll stop whatever therapy you\u2019re on until the symptoms subside and then carefully reintroduce it.
\nSteroids: We\u2019ll administer steroids<\/a>, which can help calm your immune system down.
\nAnti-cytokine drugs: We\u2019ll administer anti-cytokine drugs<\/a>, which can reverse your symptoms fairly quickly.<\/p>\n

How serious are cytokine storms?<\/p>\n

If left untreated, cytokine storms can be fatal, but they\u2019re manageable in almost every case.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve learned a lot about this side effect since some of the drugs that cause them first came out. And, one of the things we\u2019ve noticed is that if someone has what\u2019s called a high tumor burden \u2014 or a lot of cancer in their system \u2014 the storms tend to be pretty dramatic. So, if we can reduce your tumor burden first, the storm will be less impressive.<\/p>\n

Similarly, cytokine storms often happen because a lot of cells are being stimulated at once. So, if we can either shorten the duration of that reaction, or control it so that it happens to a lesser degree over a longer period of time, you will not have the storm.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still coming up with new strategies to manage this side effect, with drugs that only bind for a very short time to the target and don\u2019t give a big stimulation right at the beginning. So, cytokine storms are becoming less of an issue for our patients.<\/p>\n

Elias Jabbour, M.D<\/a>., is a leukemia specialist with a particular interest in acute lymphocytic leukemia.<\/p>\n

Request an appointment at\u202fUT\u202fMD Anderson online<\/a>\u202for\u202fcall 1-877-632-6789.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several different cancer treatments can cause cytokine storms, including immunotherapies like CAR T cell therapy and bispecific antibodies,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1145,1143,1142,56,58,57,26375,1144,12145,76811,1148,29508,76810,2822,49546],"class_list":["post-397706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-caregivers","tag-diagnosis-treatment","tag-family-friends","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-immunotherapy","tag-leukemia","tag-lymphoma","tag-lymphoma-and-myeloma","tag-patients","tag-side-effects","tag-stem-cell-transplantation-and-cellular-therapy","tag-survivors","tag-targeted-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}