A new class of cancer drugs is causing autoimmune diseases in some patients, as described last week at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer meeting in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Known as checkpoint inhibitors, these medicines rev up the immune system to fight cancer, with sometimes remarkable results. But physicians are now seeing a nasty, if treatable, side effect: the rapid onset of conditions including thyroid disease, colitis, and type 1 diabetes, which all result from an immune attack on the body’s own tissues. As cases mount, researchers across specialties are intensifying efforts to figure out whether certain cancer patients on checkpoint inhibitors are at higher risk—and to learn from this unusual side effect how other autoimmune attacks erupt.

中文翻译：

---

癌症治疗后自身免疫性疾病浮出水面

正如上周在马里兰州奥克森希尔举行的癌症免疫治疗协会会议上所描述的那样，一类新的抗癌药物正在导致一些患者发生自身免疫性疾病。这些被称为检查点抑制剂的药物可以增强免疫系统以对抗癌症，有时会产生显着的效果。但是医生们现在看到了一个令人讨厌的副作用，如果可以治疗的话：包括甲状腺疾病、结肠炎和 1 型糖尿病在内的疾病迅速发作，这些都是由对身体自身组织的免疫攻击引起的。随着病例的增加，各专业的研究人员正在加紧努力，以确定某些接受检查点抑制剂治疗的癌症患者是否面临更高的风险，并从这种不寻常的副作用中了解其他自身免疫性攻击是如何爆发的。