Healio Rheumatology reports on balancing tumor response and adverse events of checkpoint inhibitors as a follow up to a 2018 feature.

Anne R. Bass, MD, rheumatologist at HSS, explains how rheumatology was one of the last fields to get on board with this subspecialty, long after oncology. According to Dr. Bass, oncologists do not routinely examine joints so checkpoint inhibitor-related arthralgias may go unnoticed and are not referred to rheumatologists.

“Observational studies have shown that when we shift to other therapies, patients get less steroids, and that is generally a good thing,” Dr. Bass added. “They also may get better faster, and that is a good thing. But we still do not have good, prospective studies to prove this, so there is still work to be done.”

Read the full article at Healio.com.