DALLAS, June 4 (UPI) -- Lung cancer patients who also have autoimmune diseases are not eligible for the latest immunotherapy treatments, according to a team of researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
About a quarter of lung cancer patients have autoimmune conditions, the researchers concluded in their report, which was published online this week in JAMA Oncology.
As immunotherapy treatments become more widely used, about 20-50 million patients in the United States will be excluded, the study's lead author, Dr. Saad Khan, said.
"Our team wanted to determine if this practice had a significant impact," he said. "The new immunotherapy treatments also convey the risk of unpredictable, possibly severe, and potentially irreversible autoimmune toxicities affecting a variety of organs. With combination immunotherapy regimens, rates of these adverse events may exceed 50 percent."
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The study consisted of applying two separate a algorithms to 210,509 lung cancer patients over the age of 65. The most common of the autoimmune diseases were reportedly rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and polymyalgia rheumatica.
"Our findings provide the first robust estimate of autoimmune conditions among lung cancer patients," said epidemiologist Dr. Sandi Pruitt. "This study will influence clinical practice and the design of clinical trials, and raise additional research questions of critical importance to lung cancer patients and their doctors."
While immunotherapy stimulates the body's own immune systems to fight off cancer, the treatment on those with autoimmune diseases would stimulate the body to attack its own tissues more violently. There are over 80 known types of autoimmune disorders.
"While prior research has suggested that administering immune therapy to patients with autoimmune disease may be feasible, doing so carries the risk of making their disease worse, and requires careful monitoring," said Dr. David Gerber, who co-directs UTSW's Experimental Therapeutics Program.
