Immunosuppressive agents and interstitial lung disease: what are the risks?

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is unlikely to respond to immunosuppressive therapies, and patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis may be harmed by such therapy. In contrast, some forms of interstitial lung disease can respond well to treatment with immunosuppressive drug therapies. Such agents can, however, be associated with significant risk of adverse effects such as infection, diabetes, osteoporosis, myopathy, bone marrow suppression, hepatitis, urinary tract injury, and drug-induced pneumonitis. Treating clinicians must be aware of potential adverse reactions to any immunosuppressive drug that they prescribe for their patients, and they should implement appropriate pre-therapy screening (e.g., tuberculosis, hepatitis, renal insufficiency) and monitoring that is recommended to avoid/minimize risk during the treatment period. Some disorders (e.g., cellular non-specific interstitial pneumonia, organizing pneumonia, or sarcoidosis) may respond very well to immunosuppressive therapies including corticosteroids as monotherapy, and the use of steroid-sparing agents can minimize corticosteroid side effects and may enhance treatment efficacy for disorders such as sarcoidosis or connective tissue disease-associated forms of interstitial lung disease.

Keywords::

• immune suppression
• interstitial lung disease
• therapeutics

Financial & competing interests disclosure

KC Meyer serves on a Clinical Advisory Board for InterMune, and he has received research funding from Abbott, Actelion, Altana, Amgen, Asthmatx, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Chiron, Discovery Labs, DuPont Merck, Fibrogen, Genentech, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Inspire. InterMune, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Nycomed, Pfizer, Pharmaxis, PreAnalytiX, Roche, Ross, Vertex and Wyeth. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.