The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has reviewed complications associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
Patient selection: lymphopenia following therapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor
Symptoms that may accompany lymphopenia: fever, cough, rhinorrhea, lymphadenopathy, arthralgia, skin rash and/or night sweats
Lymphopenia is present when the absolute lymphocyte count of the peripheral blood is less than the lower limit of normal, which varies with age.
Grade 4 lymphopenia is associated with symptoms and an absolute lymphocyte count < 250 per microliter.
The diagnosis requires exclusion of other causes of lymphopenia (malnutrition, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, systemic corticosteroids, etc).
A patient with lymphopenia may be at increased risk for opportunistic infections, which may underly the symptoms.
