PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Cristina Isabel Braço Forte
AU  - Teresa Almodovar
AU  - Isabel Duarte
AU  - José Duro Da Costa
TI  - Immune-Related Adverse Events Associated with Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Lung Cancer – A restrospective study
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2019.PA372
DP  - 2019 Sep 28
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - PA372
VI  - 54
IP  - suppl 63
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/PA372.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/PA372.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2019 Sep 28; 54
AB  - Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) drugs have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use in specific types of cancers, including thoracic tumours. While the results are promising, severe immunotherapy-related adverse events (irAEs) have been reported.Aim: Report the occurrence of irAEs in patients with lung cancer following checkpoint blockade therapy, to identify potentially unrecognized or unusual clinical findings and toxicity.Methods: Retrospective review of patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) treated with ICI from 1/2016 to 10/2018.Results: One hundred and thirty-two patients (74,2% men) were included, with a mean age of 63 y. Most of the patients (77,3%) were in stage IV disease, with a Performance Status Scale 0-1 (86.4%) and had at least one line of chemotherapy. Patients were treated with nivolumab (n=73) or pembrolizumab (n=59). irAEs occurred in 24 of 132 patients (18,2%) and the most frequent irAEs reported with anti-PD1 agents were pulmonary toxicity (13%) for pembrolizumab, and thyroid disease (8,5%) and pneumonitis (3,5%) for nivolumab. Complete resolution of adverse events occurred in 54,3% of patients.Conclusions: In this study we confirmed that ICI drugs can occasionally develop clearly defined autoimmune systemic diseases besides pulmonary toxicity. While discontinuation of therapy and/or treatment can result in resolution of irAEs, long-term sequelae and death have been reported. More studies are needed in order to develop more precise treatments for immunotherapy-related adverse events.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, PA372.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).