{"id":"doi:10.1038/s41467-026-78897-9","kind":"article","title":"Extracorporeal photopheresis for the treatment of steroid-refractory immune related adverse events from immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy: a multi-center phase Ib/II clinical trial","authors":["Riemer R","Braun LM","Giesler S","Rafei-Shamsabadi D","Haferkamp S","Hartmann A","Melchinger W","Weiss M","Birth S","Philipp U","Gebhard I","Schwänen C","Hutchinson JA","Karantzelis N","Wallrabenstein T","Lowinus T","Brehm N","Rawluk J","Pfeifer D","Osswald N","Bronsert P","Rogg M","Andreev G","Boerries M","Lammer M"],"author_count":46,"year":2026,"published":"2026-10-23","venue":"Nature communications","cited_by":0,"doi":"10.1038/s41467-026-78897-9","arxiv_id":null,"nct_id":null,"source_url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78897-9","archive_url":"https://space-kitty.com/papers/doi:10.1038/s41467-026-78897-9","updated":null,"pmid":"42919851","pmcid":"PMC13694692","openalex_id":null,"pdf_url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13694692/pdf","abstract":"Severe immune-related adverse events (irAE) in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) require treatment interruption and immunosuppression. Based on prior preclinical data, in this prospective, single arm, non-randomized phase-Ib/II clinical trial we test the activity of Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) against steroid-refractory irAEs in 30 patients (EudraCT-No.:2021-002073-26). The primary endpoint is the evaluation of the safety of ECP treatment for patients with ICI-induced irAEs. The study meets its pre-specified primary endpoint of less than 50% of patients developing ECP-related severe adverse events (SAE). No ECP-related SAE is observed and ECP-related AEs are reported in 20% (6/30) of patients. Overall response rate for all irAEs is 96.3% (CI 81.0-99.91). Colitis-, hepatitis- and dermatitis-specific response rates are 100% (13/13), 86.7% (13/15) and 100% (3/3), respectively. Secondary endpoints include the assessment of response rate of irAE and overall survival. ECP therapy is associated with reduced granzyme-A/B/K, T-bet, interferon-γ and TNF in peripheral T cells and pro-inflammatory gene-expression in the intestinal tract. The 12-month overall survival rate is 84.3% (CI 63.4%-93.8%). Response correlates with a decrease in inflammatory gene expression in the intestinal tract. These results suggest that ECP is a safe treatment option for SR-irAEs and warrant further investigation in subsequent randomized clinical trials.","abstract_license":"CC-BY (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)","license":"CC-BY","is_open_access":true,"retracted":false,"peer_reviewed":null,"categories":[],"details":null,"provenance":"europepmc","attribution":"Abstract of \"Extracorporeal photopheresis for the treatment of steroid-refractory immune related adverse events from immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy: a multi-center phase Ib/II clinical trial\" by Riemer R, Braun LM, Giesler S et al., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78897-9, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.","topics":[{"slug":"cancer-immunotherapy","name":"Cancer Immunotherapy","domain_slug":"medicine"}],"cited_in_dossiers":[]}