Cancer risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor α therapies: does the risk change with the time since start of treatment?Show others and affiliations
2009 (English)In: Arthritis and Rheumatism, ISSN 0004-3591, E-ISSN 1529-0131, Vol. 60, no 11, p. 3180-3189Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
OBJECTIVE: To determine the short-term and medium-term risks of cancer in patients receiving anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFalpha) therapies that have proven effective in the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions. METHODS: By linking together data from the Swedish Biologics Register, Swedish registers of RA, and the Swedish Cancer Register, we identified and analyzed for cancer occurrence a national cohort of 6,366 patients with RA who first started anti-TNF therapy between January 1999 and July 2006. As comparators, we used a national biologics-naive RA cohort (n = 61,160), a cohort of RA patients newly starting methotrexate (n = 5,989), a cohort of RA patients newly starting disease-modifying antirheumatic drug combination therapy (n = 1,838), and the general population of Sweden. Relative risks (RRs) were estimated using Cox regression analyses, examining overall RR as well as RR by time since the first start of anti-TNF therapy, by the duration of active anti-TNF therapy, and by the anti-TNF agent received. RESULTS: During 25,693 person-years of followup in 6,366 patients newly starting anti-TNF, 240 first cancers occurred, yielding an RR of 1.00 (95% confidence interval 0.86-1.15) versus the biologics-naive RA cohort, and similar RRs versus the other 2 RA comparators. RRs did not increase with increasing time since the start of anti-TNF therapy, nor with the cumulative duration of active anti-TNF therapy. During the first year following the first treatment start, but not thereafter, dissimilar cancer risks for adalimumab, etanercept, and infliximab were observed. CONCLUSION: During the first 6 years after the start of anti-TNF therapy in routine care, no overall elevation of cancer risk and no increase with followup time were observed.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Vol. 60, no 11, p. 3180-3189
National Category
Cancer and Oncology Rheumatology and Autoimmunity
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-30993DOI: 10.1002/art.24941PubMedID: 19877027OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-30993DiVA, id: diva2:290285
2010-01-262010-01-262018-06-08Bibliographically approved