Neurotoxicity and Immunotherapy

Background: Great progress has recently been made in immunotherapy of solid carcinomas. The advent of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors has brought not only a completely different mechanism of action but also different types of adverse reactions. These adverse reactions are similar to those of autoimmune diseases and are referred to as immune-related adverse events. Most adverse reactions are due to lower grade toxic effects. Neurotoxicity is a less frequent. On the other hand, with the spread of immunotherapy, it can be assumed that adverse events with a lower incidence may occur in a relatively higher frequency due to borader usage of immunotherapeutics and thus, physicians outside of cancer centres may be presented with these events. The main therapeutic intervention is immunosuppressive therapy with corticoids. However, in some cases, or in case of delayed intervention, they may be fatal.

Purpose: Therefore, it is of great importance to increase the physicians and patients knowledge of the possible complications of this promising treatment modality. It is essential to apply proper management and help patients engage positively to prevent these situations occurring. This study was supported by the following research programme of Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic - RVO (FNHK, 00179906). The author declares he has no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study. The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE recommendation for biomedical papers.