The study covered in this summary was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
Key Takeaway
Vitiligo induced by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can occur in virtually any type of cancer.
Why This Matters
The finding challenges the notion that ICI-induced vitiligo is limited to melanoma patients.
With growing use of checkpoint inhibitors for nonmelanoma cancers, the diversity of patients' skin color is expected to increase, leading to a greater impact of vitiligo on quality of life and importance of vitiligo-related outcomes.
Study Design
The study team reviewed 151 patients with ICI-induced vitiligo at their institution.
Patients were treated primarily with pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and ipilimumab, either alone or in combination.
Key Results
Of patients with ICI-induced vitiligo, the majority had melanoma (77.4%); 19 (12.6%) had other types of cancer.
The nonmelanoma group included patients with non–small cell lung cancer (n = 6), renal cell carcinoma (n = 5), breast cancer (n = 2), cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (n = 2), angiosarcoma (n = 1), Hodgkin lymphoma (n =1), small cell lung cancer (n = 1), and mycosis fungoides (n = 1).
In the melanoma group, the median time to vitiligo onset was 209 days, compared to 382 days in the nonmelanoma group. The investigators suggest that patients in the nonmelanoma group may not have undergone regular skin exams and thus their diagnoses were delayed.
