Let me tell you, folks, we’ve got something called Cancer-associated dermatomyositis (CAD), it’s a big deal, especially with lung cancer. Now, we’ve got these incredible drugs, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), they’re changing the game in cancer treatment, believe me. But, and this is important, when you’ve got autoimmune diseases and cancer at the same time, it’s tricky, very tricky.

Some very smart people, they’ve said ICIs can be safe for these patients, and they can even make the CAD symptoms better. But, and I have to tell you, there are others who say, “Wait a minute, these ICIs might just make things worse.” We’ve seen it ourselves, right here at our institution. We had one case, a patient did fantastically well with ICIs, but another, sadly, had severe skin issues and didn’t do so good.

So, we’re thinking, if you’re overweight, or you’ve got bad skin lesions, or your blood tests show high levels of something called lactate dehydrogenase, you’ve got to be careful with ICIs. We’re saying, “Be cautious,” because we want the best for our patients. We’re going to keep an eye on them, monitor them closely, because that’s how we do things. We’re all about making cancer treatment great, but safety, always safety first.