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Considerations for cancer immunotherapy during the COVID ‐19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Kanjanapan Yada,
Yip Desmond
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja2.50805
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , immunotherapy , cancer immunotherapy , virology , cancer , medicine , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , outbreak , pathology
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic has led to fundamental reevaluation of the benefits versus risks of treatment in oncology. Immunotherapy has had an expanding presence in oncology, becoming a primary systemic treatment option in diseases such as melanoma, lung, urothelial, renal, and head and neck cancers. Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, namely antiprogrammed cell death protein 1 (antiPD1), antiprogrammed cell death ligand 1 (antiPDL1) and anticytotoxic Tlymphocyteassociated protein 4 (antiCTLA4) antibodies, halt the negative regulatory checks of T lymphocytes, thus activating the immune response against tumours. Patients with cancer receiving these treatments are faced with a unique set of treatmentrelated toxicities driven by an autoimmune mechanism.