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Review of immune-related adverse events in prostate cancer patients treated with ipilimumab: MD Anderson experience

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Abstract

Targeting a T-cell inhibitory checkpoint with the anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody, ipilimumab, represents a scientific breakthrough in immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer. However, ipilimumab therapy is also associated with unique side effects, known as immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which need to be recognized and managed with immunosuppressive agents. To date, the majority of our knowledge regarding ipilimumab-associated side effects is based upon clinical studies in melanoma. Here we provide a review of ipilimumab-induced irAEs and our experience in a cohort of 44 patients with prostate cancer who were treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Center on two different clinical trial protocols.

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Correspondence to P Sharma.

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Competing interests

JG's work is supported by an American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award and an NIH K12 grant. PS’s work is supported by an NIH R01 grant (1-R01 CA1633793-01), a research grant form Cancer Prevention Institute of Texas (RP120108), a Prostate Cancer Foundation Challenge Grant in Immunology and an American Association for Cancer Research/Cancer Research Institute/Stand-Up-To-Cancer Dream Team grant. PS also serves as a consultant for Bristol Myers-Squibb, Glaxo-Smith Kline and MedImmune/Astrazeneca. PS is also a founder and consultant for Jounce Therapeutics. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Gao, J., He, Q., Subudhi, S. et al. Review of immune-related adverse events in prostate cancer patients treated with ipilimumab: MD Anderson experience. Oncogene 34, 5411–5417 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2015.5

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