Dr. Brahmer on Managing Immune-Related AEs in Lung Cancer

Julie R. Brahmer, MD, associate professor of oncology, co-director of the Upper Aerodigestive Department, Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses the importance of using a team approach in the identification and management of adverse events (AEs) associated with immunotherapy.

In order to further enhance the role of immunotherapy in the field, it is crucial to get patients to enroll in clinical trials, says Brahmer. This will allow physicians to not only understand the efficacy of these agents, but also their unique toxicity profiles. Immunotherapy is not always for the faint of heart, she adds.

Back in the day, patients would become very sick with AEs, such as neutropenia, while being treated with chemotherapy until researchers discovered ways to address that challenge. More knowledge is needed to better understand immune-related AEs as well, Brahmer notes, as oncologists are currently just scratching the surface in predicting these side effects and identifying what the best approaches are to effectively manage them.

A multidisciplinary approach is needed here, says Brahmer. Nurses are essentially on the frontlines of the treatment, and as such, Brahmer says they need to know which questions to ask patients in order to identify these events early on.

View more from the 2019 Winter Lung Cancer Conference