Intravenous immunoglobulin efficacy on pembrolizumab induced severe toxic epidermal necrolysis

Waleed Kian1, Melanie Zemel2, Firas Elobra3

  • 1The Legacy Heritage Oncology Center & Dr. Larry Norton Institute, Soroka Medical Center and Ben-Gurion University.

Anti-Cancer Drugs
|July 29, 2021
PubMed

Pembrolizumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor used in many different cancers. Several immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have been associated with pembrolizumab, including toxic epidermal necrolysis. Here, we are presenting a patient with non-small cell lung cancer that developed toxic epidermal necrolysis 3-days following initiation of pembrolizumab. Following high-dose steroid therapy, intravenous immunoglobulin 2 g/kg was initiated and resulted in complete resolution of all his irAEs. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of total re-epithelialization and resolution of immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced toxic epidermal necrolysis following the use of intravenous immunoglobulin.

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