Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 16, 2022; 10(23): 8425-8427
Published online Aug 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i23.8425
Comment on “Disease exacerbation is common in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors for malignancy”
Konstantinos Argyriou, Athanasios Kotsakis
Konstantinos Argyriou, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital of Larisa, Larisa GR41334, Greece
Athanasios Kotsakis, Department of Medical Oncology, School of Medicine, University Hospital of Larisa, Larisa GR41334, Greece
Author contributions: Argyriou K and Kotsakis A designed and performed the research; Argyriou K wrote this comment; Kotsakis A revised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Konstantinos Argyriou, MD, MSc, PhD, Academic Fellow, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital of Larisa, Mezourlo, Larisa GR41334, Greece. kosnar2@doctors.org.uk
Received: March 20, 2022
Peer-review started: March 20, 2022
First decision: April 28, 2022
Revised: May 20, 2022
Accepted: July 11, 2022
Article in press: July 11, 2022
Published online: August 16, 2022
Processing time: 133 Days and 23 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer treatment due to their ability to empower patients’ anti-neoplastic immune response. However, by empowering the immune system, ICIs can trigger off-site inflammation and autoimmunity, raising safety concerns every time these agents are considered for cancer patients with pre-existing autoimmune disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this article, Samuel Rubin et al investigated how immunotherapy affects pre-existing enteral disease in a cohort of IBD patients on ICIs; however, we detected several limitations that need further consideration. Therefore, we would like to share our views on this interesting study.