The authors went on to look at the persistence of IA after cessation of therapy in a subset of 21 patients. They found that 18 of these patients still had IA symptoms months after stopping treatment. They suggested that the delay in diagnosis and treatment seen in their study might explain the finding.
The study provides “critical information, not just for rheumatologists as they try to recognize subgroups in ICI-induced IA and diagnose patients with this new entity, but also for oncology providers who are usually first to encounter patients with ICI-induced IA and subsequently refer patients to rheumatology,” Dr. Cappelli and colleagues wrote.
The experience so far with using immunosuppression in ICI-induced IA “has been reassuring in terms of cancer outcomes, but more studies are needed to confirm this finding,” they concluded.
SOURCE: Cappelli LC et al. Semin Arthritis Rheum. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit. 2018.02.011.