Assessing the Effects of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors on Bone Utilizing Machine Learning-assisted Opportunistic Quantitative Computed Tomography.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are widely used in cancer treatment, yet their impact on bone health remains unclear. This study aimed to perform a retrospective cohort study utilizing routine computed tomography (CT) scans from patients with melanoma to perform opportunistic quantitative CT (QCT) analysis to investigate the effects of ICI treatment on skeletal health, including volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) measurements and osteoarthritis (OA) parameters. A previously established machine-learning assisted opportunistic QCT pipeline was used to estimate lumbar spine vBMD from baseline and 12-month follow-up CT scans in patients with melanoma treated with ICI therapy and those not treated with ICI therapy.