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The overall risk of cancer in psoriatic arthritis patients who are treated with TNF inhibitors doesn’t appear to be linked to their treatment, according to a study presented EULAR this weekend.
The overall risk of cancer in PsA patients treated with TNF inhibitors doesn’t appear to be linked to their treatment. (©AdobeStock_Viktar)
The overall risk of cancer in psoriatic arthritis patients who are treated with TNF inhibitors doesn’t appear to be linked to their treatment, according to a study presented this weekend at the European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) annual meeting in Madrid.
The study included 8,000 patients whose overall risk of cancer was assessed as well as their risk of specific cancers including colorectal, lung, malignant melanoma, pancreas, brain, female breast, endometrial, and prostate. There was, however, a significant increase in malignant lymphomas, but its source was not clear.
“Our study provides convincing evidence that the use of TNF inhibitors does not increase the risk of overall cancer in patients with psoriatic arthritis,” said Lene Dreyer, M.D., of Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark. “Further analysis is needed to assess whether the observed increase in malignant lymphomas is due to the psoriatic arthritis disease or the TNFi treatment.”
REFERENCE
Christine Ballegaard, Karin Hellgren, René Cordtz, et al. “Incidence of overall and site-specific cancers in tnf inhibitor treated patients with psoriatic arthritis: a population-based cohort study from 4 nordic countries.” EULAR 2019. Abstract number: OP0005