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World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2026; 14(9): 118187
Published online Mar 26, 2026. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v14.i9.118187
Published online Mar 26, 2026. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v14.i9.118187
Incidence and clinical course of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related cardiac adverse events: A descriptive study from the Middle East
Ammar Chapra, Jassim Zaheen Shah, Department of Cardiology, Heart Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha 00000, Qatar
Fateen Ata, Department of Internal Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44118, United States
Amal Abdellatif, Department of Nephrology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 842520, United States
Mohammed Nofal, Ahmed Daniyal, Department of Internal Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha 00000, Qatar
Asma Mohammad Younus, Kakil Rasul, Department of Oncology, National Centre for Cancer Care and Research, Doha 00000, Qatar
Co-first authors: Ammar Chapra and Fateen Ata.
Author contributions: Chapra A and Ata F designed the project and they contributed equally to this manuscript as co-first authors; Chapra A, Ata F, Abdellatif A, Nofal M, Daniyal A, Younus AM, Shah JZ, and Rasul K did the literature review; Nofal M, Abdellatif A, Daniyal A, and Younus AM collected data; Ata F analyzed the data; Chapra A and Ata F wrote the paper; Shah JZ and Rasul K supervised the project. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study has been approved by the Hamad Medical Corporation Institutional Review Board (approval No. MRC-01-24-488).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Data sharing requires permission from the Ministry of Public Health, Qatar. Any request for datasets can be made to the Medical Research Center (MRC) Qatar at Hamad Medical Corporation, which will seek legal permission from the MOPH before data sharing. MRChelpdesk@hamad.qa. The corresponding author, Fateen Ata, can be contacted at docfateenata@gmail.com to initiate a data availability request.
Corresponding author: Fateen Ata, MD, MSc, Academic Fellow, Department of Internal Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44118, United States. docfateenata@gmail.com
Received: December 26, 2025
Revised: January 23, 2026
Accepted: March 2, 2026
Published online: March 26, 2026
Processing time: 88 Days and 12.9 Hours
Revised: January 23, 2026
Accepted: March 2, 2026
Published online: March 26, 2026
Processing time: 88 Days and 12.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized treatments and outcomes in oncology, but can cause serious ICI-related cardiac adverse events. This first comprehensive Middle Eastern study revealed that delayed-onset heart failure, rather than myocarditis, predominated among affected patients, with pembrolizumab being the most common implicated ICI. The 2.1% incidence and high mortality necessiates the need for early cardiac surveillance and risk stratification.