Background
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are increasingly being used to treat malignancies. Some patients experience immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which may affect any organ/tissue. IrAEs are occasionally fatal and usually have nonspecific symptoms. We developed a three-step application (https://irae-search.com/) to provide healthcare professionals with information on the diagnosis, treatment options, and published reports for 38 categories of irAEs encountered in clinical practice.
Methods
IrAEs reported in ≥5 cases were identified from articles published between October 2018 and August 2020 by searching Japanese (SELIMIC, JAPIC-Q Service, and JMED Plus) and international (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Derwent Drug File) databases. The cases’ symptoms were entered into the application to identify irAEs, which were verified using the reported diagnosis, to evaluate the application’s sensitivity and specificity.
Results
Overall, 1209 cases (1067 reports) were analyzed. The three most common categories of irAEs were pituitary or adrenal disorders (14% of cases), skin disorders (13%), and diabetes mellitus (10%). The top three primary diseases were lung cancer (364 cases), melanoma (286 cases), and renal cell carcinoma (218 cases). The average sensitivity was 90.8% (range 44.4%–100.0%) initially, and improved to 94.8% (range 83.3%–100.0%) after incorporating the symptoms reported in published cases into the application’s logic for two irAE categories. The average specificity was 79.3% (range 59.1% [thyroid disorders]–98.2% [arthritis]).
Conclusion
irAE Search is an easy-to-use application designed to help healthcare professionals identify potential irAEs in ICI-treated patients in a timely manner to facilitate prompt management/treatment. The application showed high sensitivity and moderate-to-high specificity for detecting irAEs.
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Introduction: We report a case of laparoscopic adrenalectomy in a salvage setting after multiple chemotherapies for neuroendocrine carcinoma. Case presentation: A 49-year-old man was diagnosed with unknown primary carcinoma with single brain metastasis, and right supraclavicular and mediastinal lymph node metastases. After stereotactic radiotherapy of the brain metastasis and systemic chemotherapy, lymphadanectomy was performed. The pathologic diagnosis was neuroendocrine carcinoma. At 11 months after surgery, computed tomography revealed right adrenal metastasis. Local radiotherapy initially resulted in complete remission. However, adrenal recurrence was noted 10 months later. Laparoscopic adrenalectomy was performed with curative intent. The patient is currently alive without recurrence at 20 months after the operation. Conclusion: Adrenalectomy can become a treatment option if other metastases are well-controlled with systemic therapy. Surgical elimination of oligometastases can offer long-term disease control in selected patients as part of a multimodal approach.
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