Immunotherapy for liver cancer is divided into the following categories
Immunomodulators
Including interferon alpha, thymidine alpha 1 (thymofacine), etc.
Safety is good, and some agents may have side effects such as fever and rash.
Immune checkpoint blockers (ICIs)
Including CTLA-4 blockers, PD-1/PD-L1 blockers, and others.
The use of these agents in liver cancer is currently controversial and still needs to be validated in large clinical studies. The side effects of these drugs are quite different from those of targeted drugs as well as chemotherapy, and the associated toxicities include immune-related adverse events and infusion reactions, but also possible off-target reactions.
Because of the potential for immune checkpoint blocker-related toxicity, or other unintended risks of toxicity, in certain special populations, it is important to fully understand the associated side effects, weigh the pros and cons, understand the potential toxicity risks, and choose immune checkpoint blocker therapy carefully before using the drug for this population.
- Common toxic reactions include.
- Dermal toxicity
- Dermal capillary hyperplasia
- Endocrine toxicity
- Hepatotoxicity
- Gastrointestinal toxicity (diarrhea/colitis)
- Pulmonary toxicity (pneumonia)
- Rheumatoid/skeletal muscle toxicity
- Infusion reactions
- Rare toxic reactions include.
- Neurotoxicity
- Hematologic toxicity
- Nephrotoxicity
- Cardiotoxicity and ocular toxicity
Other immunotherapies
There are also tumor vaccines (dendritic cell vaccines, etc.), cellular immunotherapy (cytokine-induced killer cells, or CIK).
All of these treatments have some anti-tumor effects, but they have yet to be validated in large-scale clinical studies, and the associated side effects are specific to each location before treatment.