Side Effects of Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy can sometimes reactivate the immune system against the body's normal cells and thus cause autoimmune symptoms or inflammatory conditions. Most of these side effects are reversible. However, depending on which organ is affected by the inflammation, significant damage may occur. Therefore, any new symptoms that appear during immunotherapy must be reported to your care team so that these side effects can be addressed promptly. Also inform your doctor if you are taking, have recently taken, or might take any other medications, including so-called natural products.

To monitor these effects and provide the best possible care for patients, Gustave Roussy has established a network of organ-specific specialists from hospitals and university medical centers near Gustave Roussy (Paris-Sud University Hospitals).

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Reporting Adverse Effects

By reporting adverse effects, patients themselves can provide additional information on the safety of the medication. This report can be submitted online via the website of the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM).

For physicians who wish to submit a case

You can record immunological and/or severe adverse events (AEs) in all your patients treated with immunomodulatory monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in oncology in the national multicenter REISAMIC registry.

You may also request a consultation through a dedicated multidisciplinary consultation meeting (RCP), the RCP ImmunoTox, by submitting your form online. The ImmunoTox MDT is held monthly at Gustave Roussy and is open via web conference to external physicians who wish to discuss a case. This MDT brings together REISAMIC’s toxicity specialists and pharmacovigilance team to work with prescribing physicians facing unusual, recurrent, or context-specific toxicities. 

→ Learn more about REISAMIC