Inflamed optic nerves from treatment?

FormerMember over 4 years ago

2 replies
47 subscribers
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My dad has had around 4 treatments of nivolumab and ipilimumab treatment for his kidney cancer for a tumor in his pancreas. He started getting blurry vision a few days ago and was advised to see an ophthalmologist ASAP. The ophthalmologist said his optic nerves were inflamed and scheduled a cat scan. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm wondering if this could be from the treatment. Thank you in advance. Kindly, Madeline

latchbrook over 4 years ago

Hi Madeline

I'm sorry to hear that your dad is suffering with blurry vision. It must be very unpleasant for him but he's definitely done the right thing in speaking to his team so that they can see what's going on.

This information from Macmillan about nivolumab mentions eyesight changes as a possible side effect as does this information on ipilimumab.

I'm tagging Gragon into my reply to you, as when I searched the group for 'blurry vision' one of his posts came up mentioning this. Hopefully, he might be able to share his experience with you.

Do come back and let us know the results of your dad's CT scan.

"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"

Gragon over 4 years ago

Hi Madeline,

Thank you latchbrook for the tag. I'm not sure if my situation is greatly relevant as I am on Pazopanib, a biological therapy that restricts the growth of blood vessels rather than in immunotherapy which highlights the cancer cells and boost your immune system to attack it.

In my case I suffered a partially detached retina which is described as an extremely rare side effect of my medication. However, the medics, both eye and cancer, believe it was more likely to be caused by my age and the shape of my eyeball.

If it had been caused by the medication it would have been caused by the effect of the medication on the tiny veins in my eyeball.

I had an operation to repair the retina followed by a cataract operation (the cataracts were triggered by the previous operation) and have had no problems since.

You might want to check the side effects leaflet with the medication to see if it is mentioned. I don't know if it would influence the nerves but I would also check to see if his blood pressure has increased.

I think that this is really the sort of thing that needs to be discussed with the oncologist and your dad's GP. The specialists will each look at their individual areas but his GP gets all the reports and can refer for further investigations and tests.

I hope that this is resolved for you dad soon as it must be very frustrating for him.

Wishing you both all the best,

Gragon x

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