Corticosteroid premedication and the antitumor effect of immune checkpoint blockade in murine hepatocellular carcinoma models

This study aims to investigate whether corticosteroid premedication may compromise antitumor efficacy of dual ICB, a regimen that may cause significant irAEs. The results signal a green light for further clinical investigations using corticosteroid premedication to prevent dICB-induced irAEs. Subcutaneous Hepa1-6 and orthotopic BNL 1MEA.7R.1 syngeneic HCC models were used. Low-dose (LD; 10 μg) or high-dose (HD; 200 μg) dexamethasone (Dexa) was intraperitoneally administered before each dose of anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1. Tumor shrinkage, T cell priming, cytokine quantitation, as well as cytotoxicity and single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) of tumor-infiltrating T cells were assessed.