The risk of malignancy and its incidence in early rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biologic DMARDs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Treatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) has raised concerns about the risk of malignancies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. However, the association between biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs) and malignancy in previous reports remains controversial. Therefore we aimed to estimate the incidence of malignancy in early RA patients and to evaluate the relative risk of malignancy with use of bDMARDs.

Methods

A retrospective cohort of incident RA patients was established using the Korean National Claims Database. Among a total of 14,081 RA patients identified, 1684 patients with a history of malignancy were excluded. We calculated the incidence rate of overall and individual malignancies. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of malignancies in bDMA

SUBMITTER: Cho SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5732524 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature