CASE REPORT article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardio-Oncology
Case Report: Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated pulmonary hypertension
Provisionally accepted
- Qingdao Hospital, University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences（Qingdao Municipal Hospital）, Qingdao, China
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Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have markedly improved the prognosis of numerous malignancies; however, they are also associated with a broad spectrum of immune-related adverse events, commonly affecting the thyroid, gastrointestinal tract, skin, among other organs. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) triggered by ICI, though infrequently documented, has come to be recognized and regarded with greater importance in recent years owing to its association with life-threatening outcomes. Case presentation: We report a case of a 65-year-old male who developed severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) following treatment with the programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitor tislelizumab. Following the initiation of a triple combination targeted therapy for PAH comprising macitentan, riociguat, and treprostinil, the patient's condition improved significantly. Conclusion: ICI-associated PH is a rare yet highly fatal adverse event. There are no specific diagnostic or treatment guidelines currently exist due to its rarity.Therefore, there is an urgent need for more case reports, shared experiences, and clinical research to assist clinicians in identifying optimal strategies for the diagnosis and management of this complication.
Keywords: case report, Immune checkpoint inhibitor, pulmonary arterial hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, Targeting programmed death 1
Received: 22 Sep 2025; Accepted: 31 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yuan, Hu, Zhao and Dai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yunquan Zhao
Hongyan Dai
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