PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ana Filipa Palma dos Reis
AU  - Ivo Hennig
AU  - Andrew Wilcock
TI  - Immune checkpoint inhibitors: current status
AID  - 10.1136/bmjspcare-2021-002954
DP  - 2021 Jun 15
TA  - BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
PG  - bmjspcare-2021-002954
4099  - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/early/2021/06/15/bmjspcare-2021-002954.short
4100  - http://spcare.bmj.com/content/early/2021/06/15/bmjspcare-2021-002954.full
AB  - The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is growing rapidly in oncology and palliative care clinicians and other generalists will increasingly see patients who are receiving, or who have received ICI. For optimal care, it is important that clinicians have a basic understanding of the unique nature of ICI as anticancer treatments, including patterns of response, potential issues with concurrent corticosteroid use and the wide range of possible immune-related adverse effects (IrAEs). This paper, informed by a recent literature search, provides a succinct yet comprehensive overview of ICI, with a particular focus on IrAE, highlighting that some are potentially life-threatening and/or can develop a long time, sometimes years, after even a short course of an ICI.