Neurological immune-related adverse events of ipilimumab

Ilja Bot1, Christian U Blank, Willem Boogerd

  • 1Department of Neurology, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital/Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. i.bot@neuro.umcn.nl

Practical Neurology
|March 15, 2013
PubMed

Ipilimumab enhances the T lymphocyte mediated immune response to both tumour cells and healthy tissue, improving survival in patients with metastatic melanoma but also leads to more immune-related adverse events (irAEs) than previously used treatments, such as dacarbazine. We present three patients with neurological irAEs from ipilimumab treatment: hypophysitis, meningitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Once an irAE occurs, ipilimumab should be stopped and corticosteroids started. Usually, ipilimumab-induced irAE symptoms improve within days to weeks, but can be life-threatening if unrecognised.

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