Antibiotic use and immune-related adverse events in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: analysis of the FAERS database - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #immune-related adverse events
- #antibiotics
- #immune checkpoint inhibitors
- Antibiotic use is linked to a higher reported frequency of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), with an odds ratio of 1.17.
- The strongest associations with increased irAE risk were observed for specific antibiotic classes including fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides, penicillins, macrolides, cephalosporins, and monobactams.
- Patients receiving PD-L1 inhibitors showed the highest increased risk, with an odds ratio of 1.51 for irAEs when antibiotics were co-reported.
- Among patients who experienced irAEs, those co-reporting antibiotics had a shorter median time to first irAE (31 days) compared to non-antibiotic users (42 days), especially evident in PD-1 inhibitor recipients.
- The study acknowledges limitations from the FAERS database, such as potential reporting artifacts and unmeasured confounding, highlighting the need for prospective research with detailed timing and microbiome data.