Joint Pain?

Hi Robin,

I was on Keytruda, Opdivo's twin, and I had terrific joint pain from it.  Everything from my hands, shoulders, back and knees hurt.  Eventually I could barely move.  

My onc referred me to a specialist and he ruled out various systematic joint diseases (like RA) and said I had autoimmune related inflammatory arthritis.  He prescribed steroids and this has kept it at bay.  If you do a search on this board for joint pain you'll find others with a similar story.  It's a thing.

Sorry you're mom's going through this!

Shalom,

Julie

It is a side effect. I was also on Keytruda and had the same issues. If steroids don't resolve the issue, sulfasalazine has worked wonders for me, without the nasty side effects I get from the steroids. The sulfasalazine takes a few weeks to kick in though. 

Here's an article about the arthritis caused by these immuno meds: http://www.mdedge.com/rheumatologynews/article/134837/rheumatoid-arthritis/get-ready-cancer-immunotherapy-induced ——- "These cancer immunotherapy–induced rheumatic diseases may superficially look like the classic forms of familiar autoimmune diseases, but they have highly atypical features that will affect treatment decisions. For example, inflammatory arthritis, which is the most common of these rheumatologic immune-related adverse events, or IRAEs, tends to be at the extreme end of the inflammation severity scale. Yet, affected patients typically lack the high rates of antinuclear antibodies, rheumatoid factor, anticyclic citrullinated peptide, and other autoantibodies that would be expected in patients with rheumatoid arthritis."

Hope your mom gets to feeling better soon! YEAH on the shrinking melanoma! : )

My husband has had pretty bad joint pain from Keytruda. Happy to say that over-the-counter Ibuprofen seems to be helping a lot! He takes two capsules, three times a day.

Good luck to your mom. I hope she finds relief soon. 

-Betsy

I'm in the same club as Niki and Julie.  I have not found a solution to the joint pain/arthritis–but I accept it as a small price versus the alternative.  I get the most relief from kenalog/steroid shots, but you can only get these every 3 months (per joint).  I get about 1 month of near total relief, then things go downhill.  I am also on daily prednison–at times down to 10-12.5 mg/day, but I often need to bump up to 15-20mg/day.  Not a long term solution.  I am also on sulfasalizine (3.5g/day, which is a high dose), but I don't seem to get much relief.  Methotrexate seemed like a good solution, but I had to suspend it due to a GI issue.  Good luck and please let us know if your mom finds a good solution.

I don't know where you live but medical marijuana is a huge help for me. I use a cream that I rub on my legs and it really helps. If you want more info, let me know. I'm stage 4 and also did yervoy/Opdivo and now on Opdivo for maintenance. The joint pain does seem to continue and I really didn't want to take steroids. So this was a good help. 

HI

I too developed bad joint pain and swelling in my knees after my 5th month on Opdivo.  specialists ruled out any ortho problems and after seeing a doc specializing in rhematoid arthritis she assesed that it was a side affect due to the Opdivo.  She was trying to avoid additional steroids (I'm on daily 5mg from my hypophisitis from the combo opdivo/yervoy last summer) and she put me on Meloxiam – she said was like a heavy duty advil – and pantaprazole to avoid acid reflux due tot eh meloxicam.  the swelling would come and go for about 3 months but I have been off the drugs and no swelling since end of July.  I'm hoping it won't flare up again but at least I know now which drugs to take to keep it at bay until it goes down again

Hi. I have the sam problem and thanks to ppl I n this board it is relueved quite a bit with a combo of sulfazalazine, plaque il and keyoprofen. Occasionally I need a n ultra sound with cortisone shots and that helps too