Conference Coverage
Studies provide insight into link between cancer immunotherapy and autoimmune disease
MADRID – Patients may “require much higher doses – of steroids in particular – to treat their symptoms.”
MADRID – The introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs has “been great for cancer but bad for rheumatology.”
That’s the gist of the immunologic adverse effect fallout from the immunomodulatory revolution that’s recently swept oncology, Leonard Calabrese, DO, said in a video interview during the European Congress of Rheumatology.
Results from a recent survey of U.S. rheumatologists run by Dr. Calabrese and his associates showed that “more than a quarter” now have seen at least one patient who experienced activation of a rheumatologic disease after starting treatment with an immune checkpoint inhibitor, said Dr. Calabrese, head of the section of clinical immunology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Unlike most other immunological adverse effects caused by immune checkpoint inhibitors, the rheumatologic complications usually don’t resolve when treatment stops, he added.
These adverse effects represent a new wrinkle for the practice of rheumatology and are now something that clinicians must familiarize themselves with, Dr. Calabrese advised.
Dr. Calabrese reported that he is a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb.
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