To explore the occurrence and clinical characteristics of liver injury caused by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in cancer patients.

Medical records of cancer patients with normal liver function who used ICI during hospitalization in Beijing Friendship Hospital from January 2017 to December 2022 were collected, and those with liver injury related to ICI were screened out. The basic information of patients with ICI-related liver injury, treatment regime of ICI, concomitant medication, liver function before and after medication, intervention measures and outcomes were extracted, and the clinical characteristics of ICI-related liver injury were analyzed descriptively.

A total of 155 patients with solid tumors were treated with ICI within the set time, of which 15 (9.7%) were diagnosed with ICI-related liver injury. Among the 15 patients, there were 6 males and 9 females, with a median age of 59 (41, 76) years. The suspected drug causing liver injury was camrelizumab in 5 patients, sugemalimab in 2 patients, serplulimab in 2 patients, toripalimab in 2 patients, sintilimab in 2 patients, penpulimab in 1 patient, and cadonilimab in 1 patient. All 15 patients received combined medication, such as traditional chemotherapy drugs, receptor tyrosine kinases inhibitors, and/or other ICIs. The median time from suspected ICI administration to liver injury in 15 patients was 22 (4-64) days, and the liver injury occurred after the first cycle of ICI treatment in 9 patients. The medians of peak value of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were 157 (15-508) U/L and 131 (77-696) U/L, respectively; the total bilirubin was more than 2 times of the upper limit of normal in 3 patients. The liver injury was classified as hepatocellular type in 6 patients, cholestasis type in 5 patients, and mixed type in 3 patients; the type was unable to be determined due to lack of data in 1 patient. Among the 15 patients, 8 had liver injury of grade 2 and 7 had liver injury of grade 3; the suspected medication were discontinued after liver injury occurrence in 9 patients and did not discontinue in 6 patients. Seven and 5 patients recovered or basically had normal liver function after 1-4 months, respectively among those who stopped and did not stop ICI; the liver function did not return to normal in the other 3 patients at 2 to 9 months of follow-up.

ICI-related liver injury usually occurs after the first cycle of ICI treatment (within 1-2 months of medication), and the severity is mostly grade 2 or 3. The 3 clinical types of drug-induced liver injury (hepatocellular type, cholestatic type, and mixed type) are clinically visible. After the occurrence of liver injury, most patients have a good prognosis through timely discontinuation and/or treatments.

Antineoplastic agents; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Chemical and drug induced liver injury; Retrospective studies