Patients with refractory immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis may benefit from faecal microbiota transplants, according to a study in Science Translational Medicine.

Doctors from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and UTHealth in Houston reported a case series of 12 patients with refractory immune-mediated colitis who underwent faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from healthy donors as salvage therapy.

All patients had grade 3 or 4 immune checkpoint inhibitor-related diarrhoea or colitis that did not respond to standard first- and second-line immunosuppression with corticosteroids and infliximab or vedolizumab.

The researchers found that 10 of the 12 patients achieved symptom improvement and three patients required repeat FMT; two of these had no subsequent response.