Diarrhoea with Pembrolizumab.

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Anyone else had this? I’ve been hospitalised with persistent diarrhoea and they think Pembrolizumab is likely the cause. It’s being treated with steroids but they seem doubtful I’ll be able to continue immunotherapy. Which I’m worried about because it’s billed as such a key treatment.

  • Because of the way it works, Pembrolizumab can lead to the immune system attacking healthy cells. Colitis is one of the more common complications. When this happens, they have to look at both the severity of the immunotherapy related adverse event, and the speed with which it recovers, to decide whether it’s safe to restart treatment. Unfortunately if you get one of these issues you can get others. (I had to stop pembro thanks to kidney, thyroid and lung damage).

  • Thanks for the reply, this is helpful.