CANCER IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATIC DISEASES EXPOSED TO DIFFERENT BIOLOGIC AND TARGETED SYNTHETIC DMARDS IN REAL-WORLD CLINICAL PRACTICE: DATA FROM A MULTICENTER REGISTER
Abstract: POS1439
Authors: Castrejon I et al., Spain
Key content:
Extensive evidence has confirmed no increased risk of cancer associated to either conventional synthetic DMARDs or anti-TNF in patients with rheumatic diseases. The risk of cancer in biologic (bDMARDs) different to anti-TNF and targeted synthetic (tsDMARDs) is considerably less investigated. The aim of this study was to compare the risk of cancer of tsDMARDs and other bDMARDs versus anti-TNF in patients with rheumatic diseases. In the Spanish database BIOBADASER 271 cases of cancers were identified, corresponding to a cancer incident rate of 7.4 (6.5-8.3) per 1000 PY of exposure.
Proportionally more malignancies were identified in the anti-CTLA-4 group (3.4%) versus the anti-TNF group (2.9%). The rates of incident cancer ranged between 2.6 events/1000 PY in the anti-IL17 group and 15.3 events/1000 PY in the anti-CTLA-4 group. The rate of cancer did not differ significantly in patients exposed to JAKi, anti CD20 or anti-IL6 versus anti-TNF; it was significantly lower in patients exposed to anti-Il17 and significantly higher in patients exposed to anti-CTLA-4. The most frequent malignancy was non-melanoma skin cancer, followed by solid cancer (mainly breast cancer with 24 events and lung cancer with 14 events) and melanoma (13 events).
Relevance:
In this register-based study, rates of incident cancer did not differ between patients treated with anti-TNF and other bDMARDs or tsDMARDs, with the possible exception of a potential increased risk in patients treated with anti-CTLA-4.
More data in real-world registries are needed to confirm this data, especially concerning the recent data suggesting an increased cancer risk of tofacitinib compared to the TNFi adalimumab.
