Corticosteroids and immune checkpoint blockade

Novel immunotherapies acting through immune checkpoint blockade to stimulate the immune response have demonstrated promising outcomes in advanced malignancies [1]. As a result, novel cancer immunotherapy was named a scientific breakthrough of the year in 2013 by Science. Consistent with its mechanism of action of de novo stimulation or enhancement of pre-existing T cell responses, a number of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have been observed in patients treated with ipilimumab.