Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada-like disease secondary to anticancer treatment: a multicentre case series

Abstract

Objective: To describe the clinical features of a case series of patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH)-like disease secondary to anticancer treatment.

Methods: Retrospective, non-interventional multicentre case-series study. Seventeen patients (34 eyes) with VKH-like disease secondary to anticancer treatment, seen between 2014 and 2023. Main outcome measures were patients' extraocular and ophthalmic clinical features, treatment, visual outcome, and complications.

Results: Fourteen out of 17 patients presented with skin melanoma. The main anticancer therapies were BRAF/MEK inhibitor (8/17 patients) and PD1 inhibitor (4/17 patients). Fifteen patients presented with ocular symptoms within 16 weeks after initiating anticancer therapy. Most of the eyes exhibited anterior chamber cells (n = 30), flare (n = 20), and vitritis (n = 11). All patients had subretinal fluid, and 24/34 eyes had foveal involvement. The mean subfoveal choroidal thickness measured by EDI-OCT was 483.42 ± 262.46 µm. In 12 cases, the oncology team decided to stop the anticancer therapy, and all but one patient was treated with high-dose oral corticosteroids for a median of 16 weeks. At the last follow-up visit, control of ocular inflammation had been achieved in 16 cases (median follow-up: 62 weeks, range 16-104 weeks). The most common complications were cataract and ocular hypertension (10 patients).

Conclusions: VKH-like features in the context of emerging novel anticancer therapies represent a unique clinical phenotype in which the cornerstone of management should include high doses of systemic corticosteroids, using immunomodulatory therapy as a second-line treatment in patients with a refractory disorder. In addition, a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach, including an oncologist, should consider the safety of anticancer treatment cessation.