Immunotherapy related toxicities

Immunotherapy is a treatment modality, which has experienced a renaissance in the treatment of solid tumours during last decade.

The understanding of immune response and the discovery of immune checkpoints have contributed to the development

of a brand new class of anti-tumour agents called checkpoint inhibitors. Despite undeniable progress in the treatment of several

solid tumours (including melanoma and non small cell lung cancer), the immunotherapy is associated with considerable toxicity,

which differs substantially from the well-known toxicity of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The number of patients being treated

with checkpoint inhibitors has been increasing steadily during past years. It can be precluded that this trend will continue

as the immunotherapy has shown promising results in a broad spectrum of solid tumours. It is very likely that many health-care

specialists outside cancer centres, including general practitioners, will potentially encounter adverse events associated with

checkpoint inhibitors. It is therefore crucial to provide these specialists with sufficient information regarding the diagnostics and

management of immunotherapy related toxicities and make this topic a subject of a broad discussion across the medical society.

Keywords: immunotherapy, CTLA-4, PD-1, PD-L1, toxicity