Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada-like disease secondary to anticancer treatment: a multicentre case series

To describe the clinical features of a case series of patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH)-like disease secondary to anticancer treatment.

Retrospective, non-interventional multicentre case-series study. Seventeen patients (34 eyes) with VKH-like disease secondary to anticancer treatment, seen between 2014 and 2023. Main outcome measures were patients' extraocular and ophthalmic clinical features, treatment, visual outcome, and complications.

Fourteen out of 17 patients presented with skin melanoma. The main anticancer therapies were BRAF/MEK inhibitor (8/17 patients) and PD1 inhibitor (4/17 patients). Fifteen patients presented with ocular symptoms within 16 weeks after initiating anticancer therapy. Most of the eyes exhibited anterior chamber cells (n = 30), flare (n = 20), and vitritis (n = 11). All patients had subretinal fluid, and 24/34 eyes had foveal involvement. The mean subfoveal choroidal thickness measured by EDI-OCT was 483.42 ± 262.46 µm. In 12 cases, the oncology team decided to stop the anticancer therapy, and all but one patient was treated with high-dose oral corticosteroids for a median of 16 weeks. At the last follow-up visit, control of ocular inflammation had been achieved in 16 cases (median follow-up: 62 weeks, range 16-104 weeks). The most common complications were cataract and ocular hypertension (10 patients).

VKH-like features in the context of emerging novel anticancer therapies represent a unique clinical phenotype in which the cornerstone of management should include high doses of systemic corticosteroids, using immunomodulatory therapy as a second-line treatment in patients with a refractory disorder. In addition, a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach, including an oncologist, should consider the safety of anticancer treatment cessation.