Biologic Therapies and Risk for Incident Malignancies in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Some data have suggested an association between biologics and excess risk for nonmelanoma skin cancers in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA; NEJM JW Dermatol Mar 2016 and BMJ 2016; 352:i262), but risks for other malignancies are unknown. In this Swedish study, researchers used national healthcare registries to examine incident malignancy rates in 22,500 RA patients who initiated treatment between 2006 and 2015 with biologics (tocilizumab [Actemra], abatacept [Orencia], rituximab [Rituxan], or an anti–tumor necrosis [TNF] agent), 46,000 RA patients who initiated conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and 107,500 people in a general-population comparator group.

Risk for first invasive solid or hematologic malignancie…