Clinical profile of cutaneous adverse events of immune checkpoint inhibitors in a single tertiary center

Abstract

Programmed death 1 (PD-1)/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors have demonstrated their efficacy in the treatment of various malignancies. Despite their benefits, their immunomodulatory activities can cause unpredictable cutaneous adverse events (CAE). This study aimed to identify characteristics of CAE in patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors through the medical records, photographs, and pathology reports. Fifty CAE occurred in 47 (2.75%) of 1711 patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Pruritic, psoriasiform, urticarial, and acneiform eruptions were the four most common types. Melanoma patients showed CAE more frequently than other malignancies. Acneiform eruption occurred more often at ages under 60years. Urticarial eruption appeared earlier, while keratoacanthoma appeared later after immunotherapy. The overall survival times were not significantly different between the two groups with and without CAE by Kaplan-Meier analysis (p=0.055). Studies on CAE may provide more information to understand these drugs and to help manage the patients.