Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been incorporated into the treatment of various malignancies. An increasing body of literature is reporting rare but potentially fatal adverse events associated with these agents. In this case series, the authors report the clinical features and outcomes of seven patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitors for different solid organ malignancies and developed a tetrad of immune-related myocarditis, myositis, myasthenia gravis and transaminitis. Herein the authors review the literature and describe the current diagnostic and management approach for this overlapping syndrome. The authors' series highlights the importance of a high index of clinical suspicion, prompt comprehensive investigations, early multidisciplinary team involvement and initiation of immunosuppressive therapy when immune-related adverse events are suspected. Plain language summary Cancer immunotherapy is used in the treatment of different cancer types. Immunotherapy activat
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The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research announces a $1 million grant to The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) to study the harmful side effects that sometimes occur in cancer patients treated with immunotherapy. The research will involve mice engineered with humanized immune systems to find specific gene variants that could explain why so many patients - as many as 10 percent - develop Type 1 diabetes while undergoing immunotherapy to treat cancer. The grant will also study and determine how to predict which patients may experience myocarditis, a rare but potentially deadly inflammation of the heart that immunotherapy can also trigger.
This new grant project, Identifying Genes Uniquely Contributing to ICI-induced Immune Related Adverse Events, led by Professor Dave Serreze, Ph.D., and Scientific Director and Professor Nadia Rosenthal, Ph.D., F.Med.Sci., builds upon a $2.5 million grant the Mark Foundation awarded to JAX in 2019 aimed at determining how genetics influence immunother
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Researcher to test value of tailored gene testing
A Perth researcher is hoping to make a case for the upfront use of advanced DNA testing in patients with two of the most common forms of leukaemia.
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital haematologist Dr Xuan Ni Tan is one of five cancer researchers awarded a State Government fellowship in the latest round of the WA Cancer and Palliative Care Network Fellowship program.
She will use her fellowship to determine whether the benefits of more targeted treatment can justify the costs of using advanced gene-sequencing technology to screen patients before they start treatment.