Korean J Intern Med > Volume 35(5); 2020 > Article
Kim and Bae: Bone remodeling by checkpoint inhibitor
A 64-year-old man visited our hospital because of chest pain. He had undergone a left nephroureteretomy due to sarcomatoid-variant urothelial carcinoma 1 year ago. Computed tomography (CT) showed osteolytic bone lesions on the ribs (Fig. 1A) and spine, suggesting bone metastases. He was administered pembrolizumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, as he was unfit to undergo platinum therapy. After 12 weeks from the start of the treatment, CT revealed an osteoblastic change of the metastatic bone lesions (Fig. 1B), and a later image showed consistent bone remodeling reaction. After 1 year, the lesions changed in morphology to more closely resemble normal cortical bone (Fig. 1C); and after 2 years (Fig. 1D), the lesions completely changed to resemble normal cortical bone. Whole-body bone scan showed nearly normal uptake at the metastatic bone lesions. Currently, it remains uncertain whether the osteoblastic reaction responds to immune checkpoint inhibitors that target malignant bone lesions. This case suggests that immune checkpoint inhibitors are effective against bone lesions by converting metastatic bone lesions from osteolytic lesions to osteoblastic lesions.
Informed consent was obtained from the patient

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figure 1.
(A) Initial computed tomography showing osteolytic bone metastasis that destroyed the right ninth rib, (B) the osteolytic metastatic lesion showing osteoblastic change after 12 weeks, (C) the lesion showed a greater osteoblastic response after 1 year, (D) the lesion was nearly identical to normal cortical bone after 2 years.
kjim-2019-178f1.jpg

Editorial Office
101-2501, Lotte Castle President, 109 Mapo-daero, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04146, Korea
Tel: +82-2-2271-6792    Fax: +82-2-790-0993    E-mail: kaim@kams.or.kr                

Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Internal Medicine.

Close layer
prev next