Rituximab in steroid-refractory immune-related pancreatitis: a case report

Armando Santoro; Silvia Masini; Raffaele Cavina; Maria Chiara Tronconi; Fabio De Vincenzo

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1205720

Rituximab in steroid-refractory immune-related pancreatitis: a case report

Front Oncol. 2023 Jul 31:13:1205720. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1205720. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Armando Santoro^{1

2}, Silvia Masini^{1

2}, Raffaele Cavina², Maria Chiara Tronconi², Fabio De Vincenzo²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy.
² IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital, Humanitas Cancer Center, Milan, Italy.

Abstract

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for treating several types of cancer is increasing, but they may be associated with immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Pancreatitis is a rare irAE, mostly responsive to steroid treatment. There are no published data on the management of steroid-refractory ICI-induced pancreatitis. Rituximab has shown efficacy in the setting of relapsing non-ICI-induced autoimmune pancreatitis. However, its use has not been tested for treating immunotherapy-related pancreatitis. Here, we present the case of a patient with steroid-refractory immune-related pancreatitis successfully treated with rituximab as a potential strategy for irAE management.

Keywords: atezolizumab; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immune-related adverse event; rituximab; steroid-refractory pancreatitis.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

Editorial and linguistic assistance was supported with internal funds. Editorial and linguistic assistance was partially supported by “Ricerca Corrente” funding from the Italian Ministry of Health to IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital.