Tan PX, Huang W, Liu PP, Pan Y, Cui YH. Dynamic changes in the radiologic manifestation of a recurrent checkpoint inhibitor related pneumonitis in a non-small cell lung cancer patient: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(30): 9108-9113 [PMID: 34786393 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i30.9108]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yan-Hai Cui, MD, Professor, Department of Radiology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 106 Zhongshan Er Road, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China. cuiyanhai_gpph@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2021; 9(30): 9108-9113 Published online Oct 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i30.9108
Dynamic changes in the radiologic manifestation of a recurrent checkpoint inhibitor related pneumonitis in a non-small cell lung cancer patient: A case report
Pei-Xin Tan, Wei Huang, Ping-Ping Liu, Yi Pan, Yan-Hai Cui
Pei-Xin Tan, Wei Huang, Ping-Ping Liu, Yi Pan, Yan-Hai Cui, Department of Radiation Oncology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Tan PX wrote the manuscript; Huang W, Liu PP and Pan Y collected clinical data; Cui YH reviewed the computed tomography scan images of the patient; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: The patients provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None reported. All authors have declared that there are no financial conflicts of interest with regard to this work.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
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: Yan-Hai Cui, MD, Professor, Department of Radiology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 106 Zhongshan Er Road, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China. cuiyanhai_gpph@163.com
Received: January 27, 2021 Peer-review started: January 27, 2021 First decision: August 18, 2021 Revised: August 18, 2021 Accepted: September 14, 2021 Article in press: September 14, 2021 Published online: October 26, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND
As immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have become widely used in lung cancer treatment, immune-related adverse events (irAEs) warrant sufficient attention. Checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis (CIP) is one of the most concerning adverse events as it is uncommon but life threatening.
CASE SUMMARY
The patient whose case is reported here experienced three episodes of CIP in a span of 4 mon. Interestingly, the three episodes of CIP involved different regions of the lung separately. Taking these pneumonitis areas together makes nearly a whole lung area.
CONCLUSION
This case showed that recurrent CIPs may occur repeatedly until the whole lung is involved, suggesting that the follow-up period of CIP should be long enough, and the rechallenge of ICI should be done with due caution.
Core Tip: Checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis (CIP) is one of the most concerning adverse events as it is uncommon but life threatening. This is the first case report on the unique dynamic changes in the radiologic features of CIP. This case showed that recurrent CIPs may occur repeatedly until the whole lung is involved, indicating that the follow-up period of CIP should be long enough, and the rechallenge of immune checkpoint inhibitor should be done with due caution.
