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Michigan [US], December 21 (ANI): Researchers at Michigan Medicine have developed a new biomarker-based technique to screen for a rare and fatal consequence caused by monoclonal antibodies, which are used to treat a variety of tumours.
“While immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of various cancers, patients who develop the rare complication of myocarditis often present late with at least a 50% chance of death,” said Salim Hayek, M.D, senior author of the study and medical director of the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center Clinics.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors, or ICIs, are monoclonal antibodies that enhance the body’s immune system and its response against cancerous cells. There is potential risk that the heightened immune activity from the medication can turn against the body itself, causing damage to almost any of organ system, with myocarditis being the most severe complication.
Researchers analysed more than 2,600 patients with cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors at University of Michigan Health between June 2014 and Dec. 2021. The vast majority of patients diagnosed with ICI myocarditis also had early signs of muscle injury and liver damage, even prior to hospitalization. Of these patients, 95 per cent had at least three elevated biomarkers, compared to just 5 per cent of patients without myocarditis.
Among non-cardiac biomarkers, creatine phosphokinase, which signals muscle injury, was most strongly linked to the development of ICI myocarditis.
Researchers concluded that clinicians should monitor patients on ICIs regularly for biomarkers of damage elsewhere in the body, including creatine phosphokinase for muscle injury, aspartate and alanine aminotransferase for liver injury, and lactate dehydrogenase for tissue injury.
