Body mass index as a possible predictor of the development of endocrine immune-mediated adverse events during immune checkpoint inhibitors therapy
Authors: Glibka A. A. , Mazurina N. V. , Troshina E. A. , Sarantseva K. A. , Kharkevich G. Yu. , Volkonskii M. V. , Elfimova A. R. 
Published: April 2024

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity have a significant impact on the course and results of treatment of many diseases, including cancer. One of the modern types of antitumor therapy is immune checkpoint inhibitors. Taking into account the high effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors for various types of tumors, it seems interesting to study the initial anthropometric data of patients and assess the possible influence of nutritional status on the development of endocrine immune-mediated adverse events.

AIM: To compare groups of patients with different starting body mass index (BMI) before the first administration of the immune checkpoint inhibitors drug and analyze the risk of developing endocrine immune-mediated adverse events in the future.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The single-center study included 172 patients who were recommended antitumor therapy immune checkpoint inhibitors at the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology and Moscow City Oncology Hospital №62 in 2020–2022. Measurement of height and body weight with further calculation of BMI was carried out before the first administration of the drug immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Depending on the subsequent occurrence of immune-mediated adverse events, patients were divided into groups: those with developed immune-mediated adverse events (any, cutaneous, thyroid) and those without immune-mediated adverse events (any, cutaneous, thyroid).

RESULTS: According to the results of our study, in 38 patients (37.3%) out of 102, for whom data on the presence/absence of any immune-mediated adverse events were obtained, the following were recorded: thyropathies (n=13, 12.7%), skin lesions (n=13, 12.7%), gastrointestinal toxicity (n=7, 6.9%), hepatotoxicity (n=4, 3.9%), hypophysitis (n=2, 2%), nephritis (n=2, 2%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (n=1, 1%), hematological toxicity (n=1, 1%), pneumonitis (n=1, 1%), Guillain-Barré syndrome (n=1, 1%). At the same time, in most patients only one immune-mediated adverse event was encountered (n=31, 81.6%), two immune-mediated adverse events were detected significantly less frequently (n=7, 18.4%).

When conducting a comparative analysis of groups of patients with developed immune-mediated adverse events, including dermatological ones, or their absence, a statistical trend in differences in BMI was obtained. Using ROC analysis, a BMI cut-off point was determined equal to 28.16 kg/m² for all immune-mediated adverse events and 25.39 kg/m² for skin immune-mediated adverse events, below which, contrary to the available data, the risk of developing immune-mediated adverse events increased, but the diagnostic sensitivity (DS) and diagnostic specificity (DS) turned out to be low.

CONCLUSION: We identified a statistical trend in the risk of developing immune-mediated adverse events (primarily dermatological) with a lower BMI before the start of antitumor immunotherapy immune checkpoint inhibitors. More research is required to find a more reliable relationship.