ArticleArthritis research & therapy2017
The risk of malignancy and its incidence in early rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biologic DMARDs.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative efficacy and safety of rituximab, tocilizumab, and teprotumumab in Graves' orbitopathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Eye (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Adverse events associated with anti-IL-17 agents for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis: a systematic scoping review.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Pooled it
- The risk of leukemia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Safety profile of upadacitinib in patients at risk of cardiovascular disease: integrated post hoc analysis of the SELECT phase III rheumatoid arthritis clinical programme.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2023Trial
- Impact of initial therapy with upadacitinib or adalimumab on achievement of 48-week treatment goals in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: post hoc analysis of SELECT-COMPARE.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2023Trial
- Malignancy risk with tofacitinib versus TNF inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis: results from the open-label, randomised controlled ORAL Surveillance trial.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2023Trial
- Inflammation Beyond the Prostate: The Role of Systemic Inflammatory Disorders in Prostate Carcinogenesis.Cureus · 2025Review
- The genetic liability to rheumatoid arthritis may decrease hepatocellular carcinoma risk in East Asian population: a Mendelian randomization study.Arthritis research & therapy · 2023Article
- Article
- The risk of newly diagnosed cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis by TNF inhibitor use: a nationwide cohort study.Arthritis research & therapy · 2022Article
- Potential Cancer Risk in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Longitudinal Korean Population-Based Analysis.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- Cancer risks in rheumatoid arthritis patients who received immunosuppressive therapies: Will immunosuppressants work?Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- The Risk of Malignancy in Korean Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.Yonsei medical journal · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTreatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) has raised concerns about the risk of malignancies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. However, the association between biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs) and malignancy in previous reports remains controversial. Therefore we aimed to estimate the incidence of malignancy in early RA patients and to evaluate the relative risk of malignancy with use of bDMARDs.
methodsA retrospective cohort of incident RA patients was established using the Korean National Claims Database. Among a total of 14,081 RA patients identified, 1684 patients with a history of malignancy were excluded. We calculated the incidence rate of overall and individual malignancies. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of malignancies in bDMARD users was compared to that in nonusers. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the impact of bDMARDs on the development of malignancies in early RA patients.
resultsA total of 12,397 early RA patients without a history of malignancy were enrolled. During 41,599 person-years (PY) of follow-up, 725 malignancies developed in 561 patients (174.3/10,000 PY) and 21 hematologic malignancies developed (5.0/10,000 PY). Patients treated with bDMARDs had a significantly lower incidence of overall malignancy compared to those not treated with bDMARDs (SIR 0.45 (95% CI 0.28-0.70)). However, this relationship was not significant with regard to hematologic malignancies (SIR 2.65 (95% CI 0.55-7.76)). On multivariable analysis, bDMARD use was a protective factor against the development of overall malignancy (odds ratio 0.42 (95% CI 0.25-0.73)). However, bDMARD use had no significant protective effect against the development of hematologic malignancies (odds ratio 1.69 (95% CI 0.38-7.59)).
conclusionsIn early RA patients, bDMARD use decreases the overall risk of developing malignancies; however, it does not affect the risk of developing hematologic malignancies.
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