Immunotherapy and pulmonary toxicities: can concomitant immune-checkpoint inhibitors with radiotherapy increase the risk of radiation pneumonitis?

Extract

Delaunay et al. [1] presented the results of a retrospective study of 1826 cancer patients treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). 3.5% of the patients developed interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). The mechanisms of this toxicity remain largely unknown [2]. The cohort was mainly composed of lung cancer patients (75%). This explains why a significant proportion of the patients (40%) with ILD had received thoracic radiotherapy. However, patients with ILD features within the initial volumes of radiotherapy were excluded from the study to dissociate cases related to radiation pneumonitis. This study is important and brings to the light key data regarding the emerging field of clinical management of adverse ICI events.