ArticleArthritis research & therapy2014
The risk of cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis taking tumor necrosis factor antagonists: a nationwide cohort study.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2014. 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 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-Analysis of the Incidence and Influencing Factors of Malignant Tumors in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Insights Into Late-Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis (LORA): Characteristics (Clinical and Imaging), Comorbidities, and Therapeutic Targets.Geriatrics & gerontology international · 2026Review
- Leukemias in the Context of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Shared Pathways and Clinical Perspectives.Cureus · 2025Review
- Efficacy and safety profile of biotechnological agents and Janus kinase inhibitors in VEXAS syndrome: data from the international AIDA Network VEXAS registry.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Elderly-Onset Rheumatoid Arthritis: Characteristics and Treatment Options.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Review
- JAK inhibitors and the risk of malignancy: a meta-analysis across disease indications.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2023Article
- Safety outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with abatacept: results from a multinational surveillance study across seven European registries.Arthritis research & therapy · 2023Article
- Article
- Cancer risks in rheumatoid arthritis patients who received immunosuppressive therapies: Will immunosuppressants work?Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- PD-1/PD-L1 Checkpoints and Resveratrol: A Controversial New Way for a Therapeutic Strategy.Cancers · 2021Review
- Initiation of Pancreatic Cancer: The Interplay of Hyperglycemia and Macrophages Promotes the Acquisition of Malignancy-Associated Properties in Pancreatic Ductal Epithelial Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- 20Frontiers in immunology · 2021Article
- Pharmacovigilance of Biopharmaceuticals in Rheumatic Diseases, Adverse Events, Evolution, and Perspective: An Overview.Biomedicines · 2020Review
- Utilization of biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.Clinical rheumatology · 2020Article
- Management of inflammatory rheumatic conditions in the elderly.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2019Review
- Risk of malignancy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis after anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy: results from Korean National Health Insurance claims data.The Korean journal of internal medicine · 2019Article
- Using human experience to identify drug repurposing opportunities: theory and practice.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2019Review
- Adalimumab-induced acute myeloid leukaemia in a patient with Crohn's disease.BMJ case reports · 2019Article
- Growing evidence of the safety of JAK inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe association between cancer and use of biologic therapy among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients remains controversial. We aimed to compare the relative risk of cancer development between RA patients taking tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) antagonists and those taking nonbiologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (nbDMARDs).
methodsWe conducted a nationwide cohort study between 1997 and 2011 using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The risk of newly diagnosed cancer was compared between patients starting TNF-α antagonists (biologics cohort) and matched subjects taking nbDMARDs only (nbDMARDs cohort). Cumulative incidences and hazard ratios (HR) were calculated after adjusting for competing mortality. Standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was calculated for cancer risk. Multivariate analyses were performed using Cox proportional hazards model.
resultsWe compared 4426 new users of TNF-α antagonists and 17704 users of nbDMARDs with similar baseline covariate characteristics. The incidence rates of cancer among biologics and nbDMARDs cohorts were 5.35 (95% confidence interval (CI) 4.23 to 6.46) and 7.41 (95% CI 6.75 to 8.07) per 1000 person-years, respectively. On modified Cox proportional hazards analysis, the risk of cancer was significantly reduced in subjects in biologics cohort (adjusted HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.80, P < .001), after adjusting for age, gender, disease duration, major co-morbidities, and prior use of DMARDs and corticosteroids. However, there was an increased risk for hematologic cancers in biologics cohort, yet without statistical significance. The effect of biologics was consistent across all multivariate stratified analyses and the association between biologics use and cancer risk was independent of dosage of concomitant nbDMARDs.
conclusionThese findings suggested that RA patients taking TNF-α antagonist are associated with a lower risk of cancer, but not for hematologic cancers, than RA patients taking nbDMARDs alone.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.