Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Aug 15, 2021; 13(8): 772-798
Published online Aug 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i8.772
Immune checkpoint inhibitor-mediated colitis in gastrointestinal malignancies and inflammatory bowel disease
Alexa R Weingarden, Samuel J S Rubin, John Gubatan
Alexa R Weingarden, John Gubatan, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Redwood City, CA 94063, United States
Samuel J S Rubin, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Redwood City, CA 94063, United States
Author contributions: Weingarden AR and Gubatan J planned and designed the study; Weingarden AR and SJR performed the literature review; Rubin SJS and Gubatan J provided critical review of the manuscript; Weingarden AR and Rubin SJS drafted the manuscript; all authors interpreted the results and contributed to critical review of the manuscript; Weingarden AR had full access to the study data and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the analysis.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflicts of interests or financial disclosures relevant to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alexa R Weingarden, MD, PhD, Academic Fellow, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, 420 Broadway Street, Pavilion D, 2nd Floor, Redwood City, CA 94063, United States. aweingar@stanford.edu
Received: February 8, 2021
Peer-review started: February 8, 2021
First decision: March 29, 2021
Revised: April 9, 2021
Accepted: July 9, 2021
Article in press: July 9, 2021
Published online: August 15, 2021
Processing time: 187 Days and 5.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Immune checkpoint inhibitor-mediated colitis and diarrhea (IMC) is a common immune-related adverse event with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. The risk of IMC is most strongly associated with type of ICI used, but race, malignancy, and vitamin D use may also contribute to the risk of developing IMC. IMC incidence in gastrointestinal cancers appears comparable to other malignancies, but this is hampered by lack of a consistent definition for IMC and confounding by contemporaneous chemotherapy. Although patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are often excluded from treatment with ICI, available data suggest that they have increased risk of diarrhea and/or colitis compared to patients without IBD.