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Germany - VIP Given to Cancer Patient, remarkable results
https://www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detailansicht/2058-hormon-inhalation-stoppt-schwere-nebenwirkung-von-immun-krebstherapie.html?fbclid=IwAR2Wx7usysrBoVl7scw3rVvfBZkMGshtKagJZPBb0xoqGfaYfiR9cE0G_vE

**Translated Version

Freiburg, June 25th, 2020
Hormone Inhalation Stops Serious Side Effect Of Immune Cancer Therapy
Using a novel therapeutic approach, doctors at the University Medical Center in Freiburg succeeded in curing pneumonia in a patient that had occurred as a result of immune cancer therapy / publication in the New England Journal of Medicine

The treatment of cancer patients can no longer be imagined without innovative immunotherapies. However, they also repeatedly lead to life-threatening inflammation of the lungs. Scientists and doctors at the Freiburg University Medical Center have now successfully used a novel therapeutic approach on a patient. The patient had received immunotherapy for melanoma, also known as black skin cancer. However, this triggered severe pneumonia. The doctors decided to give him the intestinal hormone "vasoactive intestinal peptide" (VIP) for inhalation, the use of which is being researched at the Freiburg University Medical Center for similar diseases. The pneumonia completely disappeared within a few weeks, something that had not previously been possible with cortisone. The case report was published on Jan.New England Journal of Medicine published.

"After the patient initially received cortisone, the shortness of breath and coughing quickly returned," reports Dr. Frank Meiß , Senior Consultant in Charge at the Clinic for Dermatology and Venereology at the Freiburg University Hospital. Therefore, it was decided together with the patient to go a new way and give him VIP for inhalation.

The Freiburg doctors and scientists came up with the idea of ??the VIP gift because they were researching new therapeutic approaches for the lung disease sarcoid in several research projects and had already achieved initial successes with VIP. "We chose this experimental therapy because there are similarities between sarcoid and this type of non-bacterial pneumonia," says Dr. Björn Christian Frye , senior physician at the Pneumology Clinic at the University Hospital Freiburg.

“We had expected an improvement in the pneumonia, but were very positively surprised by the success of the therapy. The inflammation subsided and the patient's shortness of breath disappeared, ”says Prof. Dr. Joachim Müller-Quernheim, Medical Director of the Clinic for Pneumology at the University Medical Center Freiburg. This type of non-bacterial pneumonia, called pneumonitis, occurs in 10 to 20 percent of all patients who have received immune cancer therapy and so far have usually been treated with steroids such as cortisone. However, some of these have severe side effects and the immunotherapy must be discontinued. Instead of cortisone tablets, which only led to short-term improvement but also to side effects, the patient only had to inhale three times a day. There were no side effects under VIP therapy.

In the next step, the Freiburg team is planning a larger clinical study to clarify whether and for which cancer patients with pneumonitis the therapeutic approach could be considered.

Original title of the publication: Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide in Checkpoint Inhibitor – Induced Pneumonitis

DOI: 10.1056 / NEJMc2000343

Link to the study: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2000343

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Joachim Müller-Quernheim
Medical Director
Clinic for Pneumology
University Hospital Freiburg
Telephone: [phone]
[e-mail]