Workup and Management of Immune-Mediated Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Toxicities That Develop During Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment.

Workup and Management of Immune-Mediated Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Toxicities That Develop During Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment. Oncologist. 2019 Sep 09;: Authors: Hsu C, Marshall JL, He AR Abstract Immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a wide range of cancer types, including hepatocellular carcinoma. Workup and management of immune-mediated hepatitis, pancreatitis, or cholangitis that develops during immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment can be challenging. Immune-mediated hepatitis can be particularly challenging if patients have underlying viral hepatitis or autoimmune hepatitis. Patients with positive hepatitis B virus DNA should be referred to a hepatologist for antiviral therapy prior to immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. With untreated hepatitis C virus (HCV) and elevated liver enzymes, a liver biopsy should be obtained to differentiate between HCV infection and immune-mediated hepatitis due to anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy. If autoimmune serologies are negative, then this supports a case of immune-mediated hepatitis secondary to anti-PD-1 therapy, rather than autoimmune hepatitis. In this case, an empiric steroid therapy is reasonable; however, if the patient does not respond to steroid therapy in 3-5 days, then liver biopsy should be pursued. The incidence of immune checkpoint-induced pancreatitis is low, but wh...
Source: The Oncologist - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Oncologist Source Type: research