Internal medicine

Adverse effect

Immunotherapy

Antibody

Autoantibody

Immunology

Lung

Pituitary gland

Pneumonitis

Hypophysitis

Hormone

Medicine

Immune system

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance A substantial portion of cancer patients treated by immune checkpoint (IC) therapy develop immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which result in significant morbidity and mortality. We sought to understand the mechanisms of these irAEs and to identify biomarkers to predict irAEs to maximize the clinical benefits of IC therapy. We screened plasma samples from patients who developed IC therapy-induced hypophysitis or pneumonitis against a cDNA expression library of the brain or lungs and directly identified autoimmune antibodies correlating with hypophysitis or pneumonitis. Our data suggest that these autoantibodies correlate with hypophysitis or pneumonitis and should be tested as the first predictive biomarkers for early detection, timely treatment, and close monitoring of these 2 potentially fatal irAEs.

Autoimmune antibodies correlate with immune checkpoint therapy-induced toxicities