Celiacs and Nivolumab - 1269895

philmul
Posts:4

My wife has stage IV adenocarcinoma and has been on Peme/Tarceva for 13 cycles. He also has celiac for the last 30 years. My question is: wouldn't her celiac auto immune system work especially well with Nivolumab?

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catdander
Posts:

That is beyond my understanding Phil but I'll ask a doctor to respond. Certainly there's no reason to change treatments while the one she's on still works. But Nivolumab is in the cards for anyone with stage IV nsclc at a next decision point.

Also if the treatment regime she's on causes too many side effects one of the drugs could be taken away. These drugs are normally given individually and together can cause more problems with quality of life.

I hope she does well for a long long time,
Janine

Dr West
Posts: 4735

The concern is actually that immunotherapies may cause worsening of auto-immune disorders like celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, etc., so patients with auto-immune disease have generally been excluded from trials with agents like nivolumab. The short answer is that we don't know what would happen but have some concerns that side effects may be more severe in such patients.

Good luck.

-Dr. West