A Retrospective Analysis of Ibrutinib-Associated Pneumonia Authored by Rohan Ramnarain Tyrosine kinase inhibitors and their modulation of cancer cell proliferation may be associated with various adverse events serious enough to consider a change in therapy. Specifically, pneumonia rates among patients with cancer have been rising steadily for the last decade, perhaps due to increased use of stronger, sometimes immune modulating drugs such as ibrutinib. This particular agent targets Bruton’s tyrosine kinase, which is expressed most prominently in B cells, the cell from which most non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukemia originate. The FDA has a publically available database that contains all adverse event reports from consumers, medwatch, and drug companies. This database is known as the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and it contains over 10 million reports of adverse events that have been de-identified for safety of the patients reporting t...
