Immune-Related Adverse Events With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment for Melanoma in Older White Patients

Source: The ASCO Post, May 2022

In a population-based cohort study reported in JAMA Network Open, Schonfeld et al identified the incidence of immune-related adverse events among White patients aged >= 65 years with newly diagnosed melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. They compared risk of these adverse events with that among patients who did not receive immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Study Details

The study involved data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database on 4,489 patients with first diagnosis of stage II to IV or unknown stage primary cutaneous melanoma during 2011 to 2015.

Of the 4,489 patients, 418 (9.3%) had Medicare claims for immune checkpoint inhibitors; of these, 314 (75.1%) received only ipilimumab. During median follow-up of 1.4 years (range = 0–5.0 years), 1,576 patients (35.1%) reported an immune-related adverse event, including 207 (49.5%) of the 418 patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. Among patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment who had an immune-related adverse event, 52 (25.1%) had two different events and 47 (22.7%) had more than two events. The most common events in these patients were diarrhea (n = 95), sepsis/septicemia (n = 59), hypothyroidism (n = 54), and primary adrenal insufficiency (n = 34).

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