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Dermatology Online Journal

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Dermatomyositis associated with nivolumab therapy for melanoma: a case report and review of the literature

Abstract

We present a rare case of dermatomyositis associated with nivolumab therapy for melanoma. Nivolumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that blocks the programmed death-1 (PD1) receptor and has a number of associated immunotherapy related adverse events. Although most are T-cell mediated, some are antibody mediated mimics of classical autoimmune diseases. We review the characteristics of other cases of anti-PD1 associated dermatomyositis and the recent literature to better understand how to classify and treat this challenging immunotherapy related adverse event.