Progress of Steroids Effect on Efficacy of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), including programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1)/ligand (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) monoclonal antibody, have been approved for the treatment of multiple advanced malignant tumors, on account of its ideal antitumor activity. For patients receiving ICIs treatment, glucocorticoid intervention and treatment are often applied because of some complications associated with tumor, immunotherapy-related adverse reactions, and pretreatment before immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy. However, excessive physiological dose of glucocorticoid has a certain immunosuppressive effect, which may even affect the curative efficacy of ICIs. Thus, there are controversies about the use of steroids in patients receiving ICIs treatment. In this article, we reviewed the progress of steroids effect on the efficacy of ICIs.

Keywords

• checkpoint inhibitors
• steroids
• immunotherapy