Analysis of metastatic melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and the rates of adverse events of colitis and hepatitis.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e21591-e21591
Author(s):  
Emily Horan ◽  
Melissa Arneil ◽  
Wen Xu ◽  
Victoria Atkinson

e21591 Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) are widely used in metastatic melanoma (MM), where it has markedly improved survival outcomes. ICI induced autoimmune adverse reactions (irAE) manifest in all organ systems and are due to over-activation of the immune system. Clinically relevant irAE are colitis and hepatitis as drivers of morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data was collected from a single centre (Princess Alexandra Hospital) from the electronic medical records system and immunotherapy prescribing software. Patient demographics, treatments, complications and outcomes were recorded from 2016-2019. Eligible patients had to have received immunotherapy (pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, or nivolumab) and experienced colitis or hepatitis toxicity. Trial patients were excluded. Results: The cohort of 337 patients who had received immune therapy, 18% (n = 61) had hepatitis or colitis, mean age was 56 years, 64% male. The majority were stage 4d 28% (n = 17). Braf wildtype accounted for 56% (n = 34). The highest rates of irAE occurred on combination ipilimumab and nivolumab 56% (n = 34), 10% nivolumab (n = 6), 3% (n = 2) ipilimumab, and 31% (n = 19) pembrolizumab monotherapy. Colitis affected 61% of patients (n = 37), 30% (n = 18) were grade 3 severity. Hepatitis affected 48% (n = 29), 18% (n = 32) were grade 1. The majority required oral steroids (80%, n = 49), followed by intravenous steroids (51%, n = 31), infliximab (18%, n = 11) and mycophenolate in 5% (n = 3). Hospitalisation occurred in 56% (n = 34), 20% (n = 12) requiring treatment cessation. Progressive disease occurred in 62% (n = 38), and 13% (n = 8) had a complete response. Conclusions: The findings of this analysis mirror current literature with immunotherapies used, rates and severity of irAE. The management of irAE also aligned with current guidelines. Further research is required to investigate patient factors increasing the risk of developing irAE, and ideal treatment regimens. Analysing this large cohort, the incidence of toxicity was 17%, predominantly colitis followed by hepatitis. Patients were severely impacted requiring significant interventions to manage toxicity, hospitalisation and morbidity.

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 995-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffi Thomas ◽  
Chay Bae ◽  
Tabanor Joy-Ann ◽  
William Traverse

Introduction The landscape for the treatment of metastatic melanoma has been revolutionized with the introduction immune checkpoint inhibitors. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have now become the standard of care for the treatment of cancers. These immune agents including programmed death receptor-1 inhibitors, programmed death-ligand 1 inhibitors and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 inhibitors have shown promising results but have been associated with numerous immune-related complications. Pembrolizumab, a programmed death receptor-1 inhibitor, has been associated with a number of immune-related adverse events affecting multiple organ systems including integument, ocular, endocrine, cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal system. Case report We present a case of an 88-year-old Caucasian male with metastatic melanoma of the face with metastasis to the right fifth cranial nerve and into the right cavernous sinus. He underwent resection of the melanoma and was placed on pembrolizumab at 2 mg/kg every three weeks. Interestingly, 24 months on pembrolizumab therapy, he developed corneal erosions, oral and genital ulcerations. Management and outcome Patient completed his 24 months of pembrolizumab and was started on prednisone and colchicine with improvement in his symptoms. At his follow-up eight months, he had recurrence of an oral ulcer. Discussion Here we present a rare case of an elderly male on pembrolizumab who suffered from corneal erosions, oral and genital ulcers, a syndrome similar to Behcet’s disease. Given that pembrolizumab and other immune checkpoint inhibitors are being utilized in the treatment of cancers, physicians should be aware of the wide range immune-related adverse events including the possible Behcet’s-like syndrome presentation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Verkhovskaia ◽  
Francesca Romana Di Pietro ◽  
Simona Mastroeni ◽  
Maria Luigia Carbone ◽  
Damiano Abeni ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose. Although development of immune checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of metastatic melanoma, more than a half of treated patients experience disease progression during therapy. Cases of spontaneous vitiligo-like leukoderma have been described in melanoma patients and have been associated with a favorable outcome. This vitiligo-like leukoderma can also appear in melanoma patients undergoing immune therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, no consensus exists about the relationship between vitiligo-like leukoderma onset and improved overall survival. Our study investigates the possible association between the onset of vitiligo-like leukoderma during immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment and a better prognosis.Methods. A non-concurrent cohort study was conducted by identifying retrospectively 280 patients who had inoperable or metastatic melanoma and had undergone immune therapy with checkpoint inhibitors in any line of treatment. Toxicities developed during therapy were evaluated. Results. Among the 280 study participants, 50% developed at least one type of toxicity, and vitiligo-like leukoderma was observed in 43 patients (15.4%). In the multivariate Cox model, a protective effect for mortality was observed for patients with vitiligo-like leukoderma development (HR = 0.23; 95% CI = 0.11-0.44, p <0.0001). In a sub-group analysis comprising only cutaneous melanoma in first line of treatment (N=153), occurrence of vitiligo-like leukoderma was also an independent predictor factor for duration of clinical benefits measured by time to the next treatment (HR:0.17; 95% CI:0.06-0.44). Conclusion. Our findings indicate that onset of vitiligo-like leukoderma during melanoma treatment could be a marker of favorable outcome in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shebli Atrash ◽  
Issam Makhoul ◽  
Jason S Mizell ◽  
Laura Hutchins ◽  
Fade Mahmoud

Immune therapy with checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the management of metastatic melanoma. Ipilimumab, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab are all FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat metastatic melanoma. Responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors are usually delayed. An interim progression on restaging computed tomography scans “pseudo-progression” may be observed before response to treatment occur. In this case, we report a significant interim progression of metastatic mucosal melanoma before meaningful responses to immunotherapy occurred. The patient developed significant immune therapy-related colitis and new onset vitiligo. Further restaging computed tomography scans showed sustained tumor response despite stopping the immune therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 2574-2574
Author(s):  
Michal Sarfaty ◽  
Christopher A. Desjardins ◽  
Paul Giardina ◽  
Kankana Bardhan ◽  
Swarna Pandian ◽  
...  

2574 Background: Clinical and preclinical experiments suggest that the gut microbiome can affect outcome in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Most data to date has been in melanoma, so the relationship of the gut microbiome with treatment outcome in other cancers is poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the microbiome composition in correlation to ICI response in patients with metastatic lung, urothelial, or renal cancer, as well as metastatic melanoma. Methods: Fecal microbiome samples were obtained from patients with metastatic melanoma, lung, urothelial, or renal cancer immediately before ICI therapy was initiated. Bacterial genomic DNA was isolated and profiled by whole metagenome sequencing. Sequence data were analyzed using a custom implementation of MetaPhlAn2. Response to ICI was defined as partial or complete response or remaining on therapy for more than 6 months. Results: Samples were prospectively collected from 94 patients, including metastatic melanoma (n = 17), lung (n = 44), urothelial (n = 23), or renal cancer (n = 10). Treatment included anti-PD(L)1 monotherapy (n = 51), anti-PD1 + anti-CTLA4 combination therapy (n = 17), or a combination of anti-PD1 and chemotherapy (n = 26). Clinical response was observed in 58% of patients, including partial or complete response (45%) and on treatment for more than 6 months (55%, with 31% on treatment for more than 1 year). Although the variance in the composition of pretreatment microbiome samples did not explain response alone (R vs NR, PERMANOVA, p = 0.273), a significant portion of the variance in microbiome composition was explained by the interaction of cancer type and outcome (PERMANOVA, p = 0.014), suggesting a cancer-specific microbiome relationship. Notably, there was some similarity in the signature of NR across three cancer types (lung, urothelial and melanoma). One sample in this NR cluster was from a patient whose metastatic NSCLC was nonresponsive to pembrolizumab and carboplatin/pemetrexed. This microbiome sample was evaluated in vivo using subcutaneous MC38 and CT26 tumor models in germ-free mice. In contrast to mice colonized with stool from a healthy donor, mice colonized with stool from this patient yielded a nonresponsive result upon treatment with anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 in combination with anti-CTLA4. Conclusions: Analysis of the fecal microbiome composition from patients with metastatic lung, urothelial, renal cancer, and melanoma identified a cancer-specific signature of R and NR to ICI. Across three cancer types, a consistent signature of NR was identified and corroborated experimentally in preclinical models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (17) ◽  
pp. 3009-3025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Ho Lam Chan ◽  
Pingping Chen

Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in the modern world. The last decade has witnessed dramatic advances in cancer treatment through immunotherapy. One extremely promising means to achieve anti-cancer immunity is to block the immune checkpoint pathways – mechanisms adopted by cancer cells to disguise themselves as regular components of the human body. Many review articles have described a variety of agents that are currently under extensive clinical evaluation. However, while checkpoint blockade is universally effective against a broad spectrum of cancer types and is mostly unrestricted by the mutation status of certain genes, only a minority of patients achieve a complete response. In this review, we summarize the basic principles of immune checkpoint inhibitors in both antibody and smallmolecule forms and also discuss potential mechanisms of resistance, which may shed light on further investigation to achieve higher clinical efficacy for these inhibitors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A249-A249
Author(s):  
Daniel Delitto ◽  
Evan Lipson ◽  
Laura Cappelli ◽  
Klaus Busam ◽  
Antony Rosen ◽  
...  

BackgroundTumor-specific antibodies have been reported in patients with cancers responding to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), and there is an increasing appreciation for the potential role of B cells in mediating ICI responses. However, the humoral immune response to melanoma remains incompletely defined. We hypothesized that screening sera for antibodies by immunoprecipitation with lysates of cultured melanoma cells would increase the likelihood of detecting circulating antibodies in melanoma patients receiving ICI, and potentially identify novel antibody targets associated with treatment response and/or immune-related adverse events (IRAEs).MethodsPre-and on/post-treatment sera or plasma from 12 clinically-annotated patients with advanced metastatic melanoma receiving ICI were assayed for tumor-specific antibodies with an established immunoprecipitation platform. 35S-methionine-labeled lysates from cultured 624Mel cells were used for immunoprecipitation. 624Mel expresses several shared non-mutated melanoma antigens (e.g., MAGEA3, tyrosinase, MART-1/Melan-A, gp75, and gp100). Antigen identity was determined using on-bead digests followed by mass spectrometry, and was confirmed by immunoprecipitation with in vitro transcription/translation (IVTT) products.ResultsAntibodies reactive against 624Mel proteins were detected in 4 of 12 (33%) patients (table 1). Mass spectrometric sequencing performed on proteins captured with sera from 3 of 4 patients identified several putative antigens. Immunoprecipitation with IVTT candidate proteins confirmed antibodies against melanoma-associated and cancer testis antigens NY-ESO-1, SSX2 and MAGEA10. Antibodies were observed in 1 of 1 (100%) patient with a complete response, 2 of 4 (50%) with a partial response, 1 of 1 (100%) with stable disease, and 0 of 6 (0%) with progressive disease. Antibody levels varied over the course of therapy, with previously undetectable specificities arising during treatment response in patients #1–3. Patient #1 with a complete tumor regression developed antibodies to SSX2 and MAGEA10 that were absent before treatment. Further, detection of these antibodies coincided with diagnosis of IRAEs (anti-SSX2 with pancreatitis and anti-MAGEA10 with dermatitis). In contrast, patient #3, initially with a partial tumor regression, demonstrated a loss of detectable anti-NY-ESO-1 antibodies upon disease progression, and subsequent metastasectomy demonstrated loss of NY-ESO-1 protein expression in the progressing tumor. Testing sera from all 12 patients with IVTT products for NY-ESO-1, SSX2 and MAGEA10 did not reveal additional humoral responses.Abstract 231 Table 1Antibodies detected in the serum or plasma of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with ICI therapy. Treatment response indicates best overall response according to RECIST v1.1. Post-treatment blood collections were drawn during or after ICI therapy.ConclusionsOur comprehensive screening platform detected circulating antibodies specific to multiple melanoma-associated and cancer testis antigens in patients deriving clinical benefit from ICI. Expanded investigations of the evolution of antibody production over the course of ICI therapy, associated with tumor response to treatment and development of IRAEs, are warranted.AcknowledgementsThis study was supported by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and NIH P30-AR070254.Ethics ApprovalThis study was approved by the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board, approval #NA_00090257.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101762
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Lavoie ◽  
Gillian Vandekerkhove ◽  
Andrew J. Murtha ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
Alexander W. Wyatt ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 2655-2655
Author(s):  
Mia Bothwell ◽  
Aaron Cheng ◽  
Leyre Zubiri ◽  
Meghan Mooradian ◽  
Yevgeniy R. Semenov ◽  
...  

2655 Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized the treatment of cancer with significantly improved outcomes, but these agents have a unique spectrum of toxicities known as immune-related adverse events (irAEs). The recommended treatment for non-endocrine toxicities is steroid based. However, a subset of patients (pts) is steroid-refractory and requires second-line immunosuppression. There is very little evidence regarding this population. In this retrospective study we report the 1) incidence 2) type of treatment used 3) natural history and 4) potential predictors of steroid-refractory irAE at a major academic medical center. Methods: The Research Patient Database Registry at Mass General Brigham was used to identify pts treated with an ICI from 1/5/2017 to 6/1/2019. Pharmaceutical records identified a subset of the cohort received a second-line immunosuppressive agent within a 15-month period after ICI. For pts with steroid-refractory irAE additional information was collected: demographics, ICI regimen, type/#/and severity of irAE, clinical characteristics, # of admissions, length of stay (LOS), amount and duration of steroid therapy, second line immunosuppression type, treatment discontinuation rates, response, and outcome of re-challenge. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to predict risk of refractory toxicity and study the association of different variables (age, sex, race, marital status, cancer and ICI types) with refractory toxicities. Results: We identified 61 pts (1.4%) with steroid-refractory irAEs (48 colitis, 4 myocarditis, 6 pneumonitis, 3 neurologic) out of the total ICI cohort (N=4,325). 60.7% received ICI monotherapy. 24.6% received ICI in the adjuvant setting. Median length of steroid duration was 68 days with max of 1135 days. Despite use of second line immunosuppression, 25.8% of pts were never able to discontinue steroids. Majority of pts (72.1%) had at least one hospitalization with median LOS of 7.5 days. 93.4% of pts permanently discontinued the ICI responsible for the irAE. Thirteen pts (21.3%) were later re-challenged with ICI and 7 (53.8%) of these developed a subsequent irAE. Anti-CTLA-4 therapy was associated with a 10-fold risk of refractory toxicity compared to PD-1 (p<.05). Best tumor response was complete response in 21.3% and partial response in 26.2%. Among different cancer types, melanoma was most strongly associated with refractory events (OR 2.97 in comparison to thoracic malignancy). Conclusions: Refractory toxicity is uncommon but leads to high rates of ICI discontinuation, frequent hospitalizations, and a long duration of illness with exposure to prolonged and high-doses of steroids. There is an urgent need for further investigation into predictive factors for steroid-refractory toxicity given that ICI is being used more frequently and in earlier lines of treatment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Myers

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (icis) such as inhibitors of ctla-4, PD-1, and PD-L1, given as monotherapy or combination therapy have emerged as effective treatment options for immune-sensitive solid tumours and hematologic malignancies. The benefits of icis can be offset by immune-related adverse events (iraes) that leave all organ systems vulnerable and subsequently increase the risk for morbidity and mortality.Because of fluctuating onset and prolonged duration, the toxicities associated with iraes represent a shift from the understanding of conventional anticancer toxicities. The ctla-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors modulate T-cell response differently, resulting in distinct toxicity patterns, toxicity kinetics, and dose–toxicity relationships. Using individualized patient education, screening, and assessment for the early identification of iraes is key to proactive management and is therefore key to improving outcomes and prolonging therapy.Management of iraes is guided by appropriate grading, which sets the stage for the treatment setting (outpatient vs. inpatient), ici treatment course (delay vs. discontinuation), supportive care, corticosteroid use, organ specialist consultation, and additional immunosuppression. Health care professionals in oncology must work collaboratively with emergency and community colleagues to facilitate an understanding of iraes in an effort to optimize seamless care.


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