ArticleRheumatology and therapy2020
Risk of Malignancies in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Rituximab: Analyses of Global Postmarketing Safety Data and Long-Term Clinical Trial Data.
Article in Rheumatology and therapy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Rituximab in ABO-Compatible Renal Transplantation: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Pooled it
- Identification of two tofacitinib subpopulations with different relative risk versus TNF inhibitors: an analysis of the open label, randomised controlled study ORAL Surveillance.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2023Trial
- Tumor safety of biologic agents and targeted therapies in immune-mediated inflammatory arthritides.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Safety of JAK inhibitors versus other biologic therapies following anti-TNF failure in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Arthritis research & therapy · 2025Article
- Cancer Risk in Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases: A Narrative Review for Practising Clinicians.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- The Evolution of Anti-CD20 Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis: Optimization of Antibody Characteristics and Function.CNS drugs · 2025Review
- Inflammatory Pathways to Carcinogenesis: Deciphering the Rheumatoid Arthritis-Lung Cancer Connection.Cancers · 2025Review
- Patient-Centric Approach for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease in Older People.Drugs & aging · 2025Review
- Risk Stratification of Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis for Treatment with Tofacitinib: A Review of Current Clinical Data.Rheumatology and therapy · 2024Article
- Biologics Versus JAK Inhibitors. Part I: Cancer Risk. A Narrative Review.Dermatology and therapy · 2024Review
- Malignancy risk in kidney transplant recipients exposed to immunosuppression pre-transplant for the treatment of glomerulonephritis.Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association · 2023Article
- Anti-CD20 therapies in multiple sclerosis: From pathology to the clinic.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Review
- Risk of Malignancy and Biologic Therapy in Rheumatic Inflammatory Diseases: A Single-center Experience.Rheumatology and immunology research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPatients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at an increased risk of developing malignancies, but it is unclear whether this increased risk is the result of disease pathobiology or immunosuppressant treatments for RA. This analysis evaluated the potential risk of malignancy in patients with RA treated with rituximab (MabThera
methodsMalignancy rates were obtained from the rituximab global company safety database for adverse event reporting and from the rituximab global clinical trial program for RA consisting of eight randomized clinical trials, two long-term open-label extensions, and one open-label prospective study. Global company safety database searches were performed using the standard Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) queries "Malignant tumors wide" and "Skin malignant tumors wide" up to April 30, 2017. Age- and sex-specific comparator values from the general population were obtained from the US National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.
resultsFor the 409,706 patients with RA in the rituximab global company safety database since first market approval in 2006, 1739 cumulative malignant events were reported, with an overall malignancy reporting rate of approximately 4.2 events per 1000 patients. No evidence of increased risk of malignancy, of any organ-specific type, was found following rituximab treatment. The rate of malignancies from rituximab-treated patients in RA clinical trials was 7.4 per 1000 patient-years. This is within the expected range, with no evidence for increased risk over time or with additional rituximab courses.
conclusionsAnalyses of the global postmarketing safety database and long-term clinical trial data showed no evidence of an increased risk of malignancy of any type following rituximab treatment in patients with RA.
fundingF. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
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.