Researchers are starting to learn more about a rare but deadly side effect of immunotherapy cancer treatment, according to a study published Nov. 6 in Nature.
A team from Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital and Cambridge, Mass.-based Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard studied a type of heart inflammation found in cancer patients who have undergone immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy — checkpoint myocarditis.
Here are three takeaways from the study:
- Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated myocarditis occurs in approximately 1% of patients undergoing immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Of the patients who develop it, 50% will experience a dangerous cardiac event and about one-third will die from it.
- Researchers studied the blood and tissue samples of cancer patients to identify distinctions in cell types and programs that could indicate whether a patient's myocarditis might lead to death.
- The study provides evidence that the immune reaction in the heart is distinct from the immune response of the cancer tumor. This suggests the possibility of using targeted treatments to address checkpoint myocarditis, allowing patients to continue immunotherapy treatment.