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02-10-2017 | Lymphoma | News

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Lymphoma rates remain stable in tofacitinib-treated RA patients

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medwireNews: Among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) enrolled in trials of the Janus kinase inhibitor tofacitinib, the incidence of lymphoma remains stable over time and is similar to rates observed with other biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), researchers report in Arthritis Care & Research.

A total of 19 lymphomas were observed in 6194 patients over 19,406 patient–years of exposure to tofacitinib in two phase I, nine phase II, six phase III, and two long-term extension studies, giving an overall incidence rate of 0.10 per 100 person–years.

Connie Chen (Pfizer Inc, New York, USA) and co-authors say that the incidence remained “generally stable” over time and was similar to the incidence of lymphomas among RA patients treated with other biologic DMARDs, at 0.05–0.16 per 100 person–years.

The age- and sex-adjusted standardized incidence rate, at 2.62, was within the range observed in the clinical studies of other biologic therapies, they add, but Chen et al urge caution when making such comparisons given the variability in study designs and patient populations.

And the team concludes: “Continued evaluation of studies of patients with autoimmune diseases – including randomized clinical trials and population-based observational research – will be important to evaluate the relative contributions of immunosuppressant therapies and underlying disease pathogenesis to lymphoma risk.”

By Shreeya Nanda

medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2017 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature group

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