Keytruda side effects

Posted by ebdent88 @ebdent88, Apr 16 9:22am

62 year-old male, previously in good health and physically active until my world was turned upside down with a diagnosis of Stage 3b Clear Cell renal cell carcinoma in December of 2024. Complete right nephrectomy at the end of that month, now getting immunotherapy in hopes of preventing the cancer from returning or spreading.

3 weeks into Keytruda (I’m on 400mg every 6 weeks) and main side effects so far are joint pain, with tingling/slight numbness feeling in left hand fingers. Joint pain seems more centered in left hand and left knee - ironically my left wrist has been broken twice and my left knee has been operated on twice. I also have low back pain, where I’ve had herniated disks in the past.

Does anyone know if this correlates to the drug being most likely to affect areas where arthritis may have been starting? And does anyone who has experienced the pain and tingling/numbness in their hand(s) had it improve during immunotherapy, stay the same, or get worse?

I’m asking largely because I can’t work with the symptoms as they are (I need control for fine motor skills), but could return to work when the symptoms are gone. Thanks in advance for the replies.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Kidney Cancer Support Group.

Colleen, Thanks for sharing the article on antihistamine use during immunotherapy. I will be sharing it with my Oncologist as they had me taking both an H-1 and H-2 blocker during chemo and looks like the H-2 blocker may have made the immunotherapy less effective. Good to know in case I decide to go back on Keytruda!

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Profile picture for Colleen Young, Connect Director @colleenyoung

Welcome, @annie0180. Here are the posts that @susanris was referring to, where @beebe talks about histamines and pain with immunotherapy https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/1283215/

I also found this article:
- Boost Your Cancer Immunotherapy: How Common Antihistamines May Improve Treatment Success https://morningsidecenter.emory.edu/promising-therapies/blogs/antihistamine.html

How are you doing with getting enough sleep?

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@colleenyoung I can sleep through the night, however since I am well hydrated ( drinking a lot of water) I get up once during the night, usually around 3 am to go to the bathroom. Right after my nephrectomy, I would get up every, (less than 2 hours) to go.
What I’m learning is that everyone is different and one’s body can react to a wide range of side effects and trying to predict them can be worrisome.
Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

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My arthritis flared dramatically about 7 hours after my fist keytruda infusion. Prednisone helped.

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