Infections Simulating Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Toxicities: Uncommon and Deceptive

Carlota Gudiol; Rachel S Hicklen; Pablo C Okhyusen; Alexandre E Malek; Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac570

Infections Simulating Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Toxicities: Uncommon and Deceptive

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Oct 27;9(11):ofac570. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac570. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Authors

Carlota Gudiol^{1

2

3}, Rachel S Hicklen⁴, Pablo C Okhyusen⁵, Alexandre E Malek⁵, Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis⁶

Affiliations

¹ Infectious Diseases Department, Bellvitge University Hospital, IDIBIELL, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
² Institut Català d'Oncologia, Barcelona, Spain.
³ Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), (CB21/13/00009), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Research Medical Library, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁵ Division of Infectious Diseases, LSU Health Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
⁶ Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

Abstract

Use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), a revolutionary treatment in modern oncology, is frequently complicated by immune-related adverse events (irAEs), which can be confused with infections, and vice versa, thus complicating management decisions. In this study, we review the published cases of infections as simulators of irAEs in cancer patients.

Keywords: immune checkpoint inhibitors; infection; toxicity.