Cancer immunotherapy has redefined the treatment of many cancers, but in a small number of patients this life-saving approach also leads to a dangerous heart-muscle inflammation called myocarditis.
- By LEAH EISENSTADT | Broad Institute
Why and how this happens has remained unclear, hampering efforts to prevent and treat this at-times fatal complication when it arises.
New research shows that immune cells and connective-tissue cells in the heart muscle appear to be driving the immune response that triggers the heart inflammation. Furthermore, the team identified telltale changes in the blood that may portend how likely a patient with myocarditis is to die from it.
The study, published Nov. 6 in Nature, was led by Harvard Medical School researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.
