ArticleArthritis care & research2010
Influence of anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy on cancer incidence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have had a prior malignancy: results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register.
Article in Arthritis care & research, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 58 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 197 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk of new or recurrent cancer during treatment with biologics in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and previous cancer: a meta-analysis.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Rheumatoid arthritis reduces the risk of colorectal cancer through immune inflammation mediation.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Risk of Cancer Recurrence in Patients With Immune-Mediated Diseases With Use of Immunosuppressive Therapies: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2024Pooled it
- Risk of Cancer Recurrence Among Individuals Exposed to Antitumor Necrosis Factor Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.Journal of clinical gastroenterology · 2019Pooled it
- Cancer Recurrence Following Immune-Suppressive Therapies in Patients With Immune-Mediated Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Gastroenterology · 2016Pooled it
- The risk of malignancies in RA patients treated with biologics.Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie · 2010Pooled it
- The clinical importance of the thyroid nodules during anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy in patients with axial spondyloarthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2017Trial
- Efficacy Results of a 52-week Trial of Adalimumab in the Treatment of Refractory Sarcoidosis.Sarcoidosis, vasculitis, and diffuse lung diseases : official journal of WASOG · 2014Trial
- Article
- Prescribing Biologic Immune-Modifying Therapies for Patients with a History of Cancer: A Cross-Specialty Review.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- Observational
- Telitacicept for systemic lupus erythematosus with post‑surgical papillary thyroid carcinoma: A case report.Biomedical reports · 2025Article
- Survival in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and early breast cancer treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors.Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) · 2024Article
- Osteoarthritis as a Systemic Disease Promoted Prostate Cancer In Vivo and In Vitro.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- A Multidisciplinary Approach to Patients with Psoriasis and a History of Malignancies or On-Treatment for Solid Tumors: A Narrative Literature Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Review
- Review
- Risk of Cancer in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Keys for Patient Management.Cancers · 2023Review
- Therapeutic Management of Adults with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Malignancies: A Clinical Challenge.Cancers · 2023Review
- Aggressive Colorectal Cancer in an Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patient following Treatment with Vedolizumab: A Case Report.GE Portuguese journal of gastroenterology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo explore the influence of anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy upon the incidence of cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and prior malignancy.
methodsUsing data from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register, a national prospective observational study established in 2001, we identified 293 patients with a prior malignancy from over 14,000 patients with RA. We compared rates of incident malignancy in 177 anti-TNF-treated patients and 117 patients with active RA treated with traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), all with prior malignancy. One patient switched therapy and contributed to both cohorts.
resultsThe rates of incident malignancy were 25.3 events/1,000 person-years in the anti-TNF cohort and 38.3/1,000 person-years in the DMARD cohort, generating an age- and sex-adjusted incidence rate ratio of 0.58 (95% confidence interval 0.23-1.43) for the anti-TNF-treated cohort compared with the DMARD cohort. Of the patients with prior melanomas, 3 (18%) of 17 in the anti-TNF cohort developed an incident malignancy, compared with 0 of 10 in the DMARD cohort.
conclusionThe way in which UK rheumatologists are selecting patients with RA and prior malignancy to receive anti-TNF therapy is not leading to an increased risk of incident malignancy. Although reassuring, these results should not be interpreted as indicating that it is safe to treat all RA patients with prior malignancy with anti-TNF therapy.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.