Guillain-Barre syndrome induced by pembrolizumab and sunitinib: A case report

Pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor against the programmed death-1 pathway, has been used in combination with acitinib for the first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. Neurotoxicity is a rare immune-related adverse event (irAE). The present study reports a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) induced by pembrolizumab and sunitinib, and reviews other previous studies to elucidate the clinical characteristics and suitable management of this rare irAE. An advanced renal cell carcinoma patient who received several cycles of pembrolizumab combined with sunitinib developed limb weakness and numbness of the extremities, and was diagnosed with GBS by electrodiagnostic and cerebrospinal fluid examination. The patient improved after treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin along with prednisone. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of GBS during treatment with pembrolizumab in combination with sunitinib in advanced renal cell carcinoma.