SynthesisRheumatology (Oxford, England)2025
Abatacept and the risk of malignancy: a meta-analysis across disease indications.
Synthesis in Rheumatology (Oxford, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Frontiers in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Emerging Research and Unmet Needs in Pharmacologic Management.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Tumor safety of biologic agents and targeted therapies in immune-mediated inflammatory arthritides.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Malignancy risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis initiating biological or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: a 5-year population-based cohort study.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2026Article
- Safety of JAK inhibitors versus other biologic therapies following anti-TNF failure in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Arthritis research & therapy · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo estimate the association between abatacept use and the incidence of malignancy excluding non-melanomatous skin cancers (NMSCs).
methodsSystematic database searches were performed, to April 2024, to identify phase II/III/IV randomized clinical trials (RCTs), long-term extension (LTE) and observational cohort studies of abatacept in people with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. Network and pairwise meta-analyses were performed to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for malignancy excluding NMSC, comparing abatacept with placebo and tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) in RCT/LTE studies. Pairwise meta-analyses evaluated the same outcome in observational studies, comparing abatacept with conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) and biologic/targeted synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs).
resultsIn 18 eligible RCTs and 10 LTE studies, there were 15 535 person-years of exposure to abatacept, 1495 to placebo and 733 to TNFi. In network meta-analyses of combined RCT/LTE data, the incidence of all malignancies excluding NMSCs was not significantly different between abatacept and placebo (IRR 0.58; 95% CI 0.32-1.09) or TNFi (IRR 0.72; 95% 0.27-1.87). In observational data, the incidence of malignancy was higher with abatacept, relative to other b/tsDMARDs (IRR 1.21; 95% CI 1.15-1.28), but not significantly different compared with csDMARDs (IRR 0.97; 95% CI 0.90-1.06).
conclusionsAbatacept was associated with a higher incidence of malignancy compared with other b/tsDMARDs in observational studies, but not when compared with placebo or TNFi in RCT/LTE data. Further pharmacovigilance data is essential to help elucidate whether abatacept modifies cancer risk. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42023382314.
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