Among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, the risk for cancer may be increased in older patients, men, and those who smoke, suggests an analysis of data from an international cohort.

A clinical evaluation by a rheumatology consultant identified minimal to moderate synovitis or tenosynovitis “determined to be clinically secondary to inflammatory disease rather than degenerative disease” in all eight patients, report Gupta and co-researchers.

By Shreeya Nanda medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2019 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature group Rheumatology 2019; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kez475

Results of a meta-analysis suggest that treatment with interleukin inhibitors may be associated with an increased risk for cancer and infection among people with rheumatic diseases.

Cappelli and co-authors conclude that their study “provides insight into which individuals are at highest risk for developing persistent IA, thus warranting close monitoring for joint-related symptoms, early referral to and close follow-up by rheumatology and potentially more aggressive immunosuppressive therapy.”

“Close follow-up and collaboration between oncologists and organ specialists is mandatory in managing such patients,” they write in Arthritis & Rheumatology .

A systematic review of consensus recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis in patients with cancer shows agreement in some areas, but highlights the need for further research into topics for which discrepancies exist.

Findings from a meta-analysis indicate that systemic lupus erythematosus is associated with an increased risk for 16 types of cancer.

Patients with a history of cancer who receive tumor necrosis factor inhibitors for rheumatoid arthritis may not be at increased risk for recurrence, suggests a Swedish population-based study.

Individuals receiving treatment for psoriatic arthritis may have an increased risk for developing cancer, a meta-analysis indicates.

Lead author Uma Thanarajasingam (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA) and team report in Arthritis & Rheumatology that although four of the irAEs were of grade 3 or worse, all were managed successfully with corticosteroids and discontinuation of the checkpoint inhibitors.

Children with autoimmune disorders have an increased cancer risk relative to the general population, but this risk appears to not be exacerbated by tumor necrosis factor inhibitor use, suggests an analysis of US administrative claims data.

As reported in Clinical Rheumatology , there was no association between SLE and breast cancer incidence, with a nonsignificant relative risk of 1.012 versus the general population.

Flares and immune-related adverse events are common in patients with autoimmune disease who are receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer but can often be managed without discontinuing treatment, a systematic review suggests.

Older men undergoing androgen deprivation therapy for localized prostate cancer have an elevated risk for rheumatoid arthritis, shows an analysis of the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare databases.

Using data from the DANBIO rheumatology register and the Danish Cancer Registry, the team identified 1678 RA patients who were also diagnosed with a primary cancer between 2000 and 2011.

Among patients with rheumatoid arthritis 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, researchers report in Arthritis Care & Research .

“Because immune suppression may lower a host’s surveillance against developing tumors monitoring cancer incidence is an important aspect of the safety of biologics used in rheumatology,” commented Hjalmar Wadström (Karolinska Institute of Stockholm, Sweden) in a press statement at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 in Madrid, Spain.