Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2020; 8(18): 4100-4108
Published online Sep 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i18.4100
Management of pembrolizumab-induced steroid refractory mucositis with infliximab: A case report
Harry Dang, Jiyuan Sun, Guoliang Wang, Gregory Renner, Lester Layfield, Jaffar Hilli
Harry Dang, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Jiyuan Sun, Jaffar Hilli, Department of Hematology-Oncology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Guoliang Wang, Lester Layfield, Department of Pathology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Gregory Renner, Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed in their orders in writing the manuscript; Sun J and Hilli J managed the patient; Renner G performed the upper endoscopy; Wang G, Layfield L performed the histological examination; Sun J and Hilli J are the corresponding authors; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jaffar Hilli, MD, Doctor, Department of Hematology-Oncology, University of Missouri, 1 Hospital Dr, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. ahmadalhillij@health.missouri.edu
Received: May 23, 2020
Peer-review started: May 20, 2020
First decision: June 19, 2020
Revised: June 30, 2020
Accepted: August 22, 2020
Article in press: August 22, 2020
Published online: September 26, 2020
Core Tip

Core Tip: Grade 3-4 mucositis is a rare adverse effect of the immune checkpoint inhibitor with 2 cases reported that both responded well to steroid tapering course. We report a case of pembrolizumab-induced severe mucositis that was refractory to steroids at first but had significant improvement after administration of infliximab while continuing to be on steroid tapering course.