Immuntherapie – Nebenwirkungen und -management

Abstract

Immunotherapy - immune-related adverse events and their management Abstract. Checkpoint-Inhibition has become an important part of modern oncological treatment strategies for many patients with cancer. The development of this new class of anti-cancer drugs has begun for ten years and showed meanwhile a specific new side effect profile. Since the mode of action of checkpoint inhibitors is immune modulation the side effects are particularly different to so far established anti-cancer drugs. Because of the immunological nature of side effects, the spectrum is wide, and the symptoms are amble. Additionally, the side effects can appear at very different time points after the administration of the checkpoint inhibitor. Therefore, the recognition and the management are a new challenge for the care teams. Only if the whole care team is able to understand, diagnose and efficiently manage the side effects the therapeutic potential of this new class of anti-cancer drugs can be made useful for the patients. The article aims to provide information for the care teams to recognize and manage side effects of checkpoint-inhibitors.