Pre-existing antiacetylcholine receptor autoantibodies and B cell lymphopaenia are associated with the development of myositis in patients with thymoma treated with avelumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor targeting programmed death-ligand 1

Ann Rheum Dis. 2019 Jan;78(1):150-152. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2018-213777. Epub 2018 Sep 5.

¹ Laboratory of Muscle Stem Cells and Gene Regulation, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA andrew.mammen@nih.gov.
² Thoracic and Gastrointestinal Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
³ Laboratory of Muscle Stem Cells and Gene Regulation, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Electromyography Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁵ Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁶ Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁷ Neuroimmunology Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
⁸ Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

No abstract available

Keywords: B cells; autoantibodies; autoimmune diseases; autoimmunity; polymyositis.

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