Science Reveals Why Cancer Immunotherapies Can Sometimes Harm the Heart
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Nov. 8, 2024 -- Researchers think they’ve figured out why cancer treatments that harness a person’s immune system to fight a tumor can cause heart damage in rare instances.
Further, what they’ve learned sheds light on how this potentially deadly side effect might be prevented.
Specific types of immune cells unleashed by cancer immunotherapy appear to cause myocarditis, an inflammatory condition that can weaken the heart, researchers report.
This immune reaction in the heart is distinct from the immune response attacking a person’s cancer, researchers say – which means that immunotherapies might be tweaked to more directly attack tumors without harming the heart.
“This study is a game-changer, paving the way to unearthing the roots of these complications,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Kerry Reynolds, clinical director of inpatient oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
About one-third of U.S. patients with cancer can be treated immune checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that take the brakes off the body’s immune system so it can target and attack cancer cells, researchers explained in background notes.
Roughly 1% of patients treated with an immune checkpoint inhibitor – more than 2,000 people a year in the United States – develop myocarditis as a side effect of the cancer therapy. The number goes up to nearly 2% among patients treated with combination immunotherapy drugs.
“Myocarditis from immune checkpoint inhibitors is a major hurdle for us clinically,” Reynolds noted.
In about 50% of cases, myocarditis leads to dangerous heart problems like irregular heartbeat and heart failure, the researchers said. About a third of patients who develop the condition will die from it.
“We don’t have great solutions now to help these patients, so we try everything to shut down the immune system and reverse myocarditis, but that’s an imprecise approach that comes with its own risks,” said co-senior researcher Alexandra-Chloé Villani, an investigator in the Krantz Family for Cancer Research and the Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.
For the new study, researchers collected blood, heart tissue and cancer cells from people who developed myocarditis while receiving cancer immunotherapy.
The team found that immunotherapy promoted the recruitment and retention of immune cells in the heart involved in inflammation.
They also found that immune receptors being triggered in the heart were different from those being triggered to fight cancer.
“Because the responses in the tumor and the heart are different, it makes us hopeful that we can someday disentangle the two and treat them separately,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Steven Blum, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Further, the pattern of immune cells in the blood also indicated which people were more likely to develop myocarditis, which means a blood test could be developed to flag patients at increased risk for the heart complication, researchers said.
The new study was published Nov. 6 in the journal Nature.
“It’s important to remember that immunotherapy drugs are miracle life-saving medicines, and patients should not be afraid of them,” Villani said in an MIT/Harvard news release. “We just need to make them work better so that we can maximize their anti-tumor treatment benefit while minimizing the risk of adverse events.”
Sources
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
Source: HealthDay
Posted : 2024-11-09 00:00
Read more
- Too Much Sitting Harms the Heart, Even in Folks Who Exercise
- Update on Novavax's COVID-19-Influenza Combination and Stand-alone Influenza Phase 3 Trial
- Clinical Practice Guidelines Updated for Primary Prevention of Stroke
- More Bystanders Are Using Naloxone to Save Folks From Overdose
- FDA Approves Vyloy for Advanced Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer
- Clinical Practice Guideline Updated for Migraine, Tension-Type Headache
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided by Drugslib.com is accurate, up-to-date, and complete, but no guarantee is made to that effect. Drug information contained herein may be time sensitive. Drugslib.com information has been compiled for use by healthcare practitioners and consumers in the United States and therefore Drugslib.com does not warrant that uses outside of the United States are appropriate, unless specifically indicated otherwise. Drugslib.com's drug information does not endorse drugs, diagnose patients or recommend therapy. Drugslib.com's drug information is an informational resource designed to assist licensed healthcare practitioners in caring for their patients and/or to serve consumers viewing this service as a supplement to, and not a substitute for, the expertise, skill, knowledge and judgment of healthcare practitioners.
The absence of a warning for a given drug or drug combination in no way should be construed to indicate that the drug or drug combination is safe, effective or appropriate for any given patient. Drugslib.com does not assume any responsibility for any aspect of healthcare administered with the aid of information Drugslib.com provides. The information contained herein is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects. If you have questions about the drugs you are taking, check with your doctor, nurse or pharmacist.
Popular Keywords
- metformin obat apa
- alahan panjang
- glimepiride obat apa
- takikardia adalah
- erau ernie
- pradiabetes
- besar88
- atrofi adalah
- kutu anjing
- trakeostomi
- mayzent pi
- enbrel auto injector not working
- enbrel interactions
- lenvima life expectancy
- leqvio pi
- what is lenvima
- lenvima pi
- empagliflozin-linagliptin
- encourage foundation for enbrel
- qulipta drug interactions