Cancer immunotherapy saves lives — but surviving treatment comes with its own challenges. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and CAR T-cell therapies can cause lasting complications, from endocrine disorders and kidney disease to secondary malignancies and immune deficiencies. Experts are calling for tailored survivorship care plans to help clinicians stay ahead of these long-term risks.
Cancer immunotherapy has dramatically improved survival rates, but longer lives mean more time for late-onset treatment complications to emerge. At the annual German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology (DGHO) meeting, oncologist Katharina Egger-Heidrich spotlighted the long-term risks of two major immunotherapy classes — immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and CAR T-cell therapies — and made the case for structured survivorship care.
For ICI patients, chronic immune-related adverse events (irAEs) are surprisingly common, affecting roughly half of all treated patients. Endocrine complications like thyroiditis, hypophysitis, and adrenal insufficiency tend to appear late, while cardiovascular, rheumatologic, and renal risks also warrant ongoing vigilance. CAR T-cell therapy, now over a decade old, carries its own long-term burden — particularly B-cell aplasia and immune deficiency, which drive infection risk and account for the leading cause of non-relapse mortality.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: As immunotherapy becomes standard of care across more cancer types, clinicians need robust survivorship frameworks — not just acute toxicity protocols — to manage the growing population of long-term cancer survivors.
