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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1485594

Cutaneous adverse events due to Checkpoint inhibitors – A retrospective analysis at a tertiary referral hospital in Switzerland 2019-2022.

Provisionally accepted
Clara Theresa Furrer-Matcau Clara Theresa Furrer-Matcau 1*Chloé Sieber Chloé Sieber 2,3Dirk Lehnick Dirk Lehnick 2,3Christoph Urs Brand Christoph Urs Brand 1Balthasar Hug Balthasar Hug 3,4
  • 1 Dermatology and Allergology, Cantonal Hospital Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland
  • 2 Biostatistics and Methodology, Clinical Trials Unit Central Switzerland, Lucerne, Switzerland
  • 3 Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland
  • 4 Department of Medicine, Cantonal Hospital Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Checkpoint inhibitors are increasingly important in anti-cancer treatment. Therefore, knowledge of immune-related cutaneous adverse events (ir-cAE) is crucial for therapy management and continuation.Objective:The study aimed to analyze the incidence of cutaneous adverse events caused by checkpoint inhibitor therapy, including their clinical presentation, management, and impact on further treatment.This is a descriptive, monocentric retrospective study that uses data from the electronic health record system at a tertiary referral hospital in Central Switzerland from September 2019 to September 2022.The electronic health records of patients who received a therapy with checkpoint inhibitors were examined for age, sex, type of immunotherapy, time to occurrence of ir-cAEs, characteristics of the ir-cAEs, the treatment approach, and the continuation or cessation of the therapy due to ir-cAEs.Out of 431 patients, for 131 patients (30.4%) at least one ir-cAE event was documented. In particular, 109 (25.3%) experienced pruritus and 61 (14.2%) showed a maculopapular exanthema. The severity of the ir-cAE was mild in 88 patients (67.2% out of those with ir-cAEs). Ir-cAE were observed in 10 out of 20 patients (50%) treated with ipilimumab/nivolumab and in 15 out of 24 (62.5%) treated with durvalumab. In 15 patients (3.5%), checkpoint inhibitor therapy had to be discontinued due to cutaneous side effects.This study showed that approximately one third of the patients experienced ir-cAEs. The most frequently observed ir-cAEs were pruritus, maculopapular exanthema and xerosis cutis. In general, the dermatological manifestations are mild and responsive to topical treatment or self-limiting with no requirement for treatment interruption.

    Keywords: Immune-related cutaneous adverse events, Checkpoint inhibitor therapy, Immunotherapy, dermatological side-effect, Skin, Cancer

    Received: 24 Aug 2024; Accepted: 19 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Furrer-Matcau, Sieber, Lehnick, Brand and Hug. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Clara Theresa Furrer-Matcau, Dermatology and Allergology, Cantonal Hospital Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

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