Research from the Karolinska Institute – should TNF inhibitors be used for people with a history of cancer?

Swedish researchers have set out to explore whether TNF inhibitor treatment for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with increased risk for cancer recurrence.Among 467 patients who were treated 42 had cancer recurrence (9.0%); whereas among 2164 matched patients with the same cancer history, 155 had recurrences (7.2%;). The calculated hazard ratios were close to 1.0 in various patient subsets matched on cancer stage or with similar time from index cancer diagnosis. This research suggests that RA treatment with these effective drugs is probably not associated with increased risk for cancer recurrence. Read more at the website of The Annals of Internal Medicine.