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Children with juvenile arthritis at increased risk for cancer, study finds
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Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis appear at least twice as likely to develop cancer when compared to children without juvenile idiopathic arthritis, irrespective of arthritis medication, according to a study published in Arthritis and Rheumatism.
The report, according to a news release from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, could also cast doubt on the role played by anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy.
According to the study abstract, the researchers identified cohorts of children with (7,812) and without juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) through use of national U.S. Medicaid data from 2000 through 2005. The children without JIA were considered a control group, and had a different chronic illness such as asthma or ADHD. Among the children with JIA, 1,484 received treatment with anti-TNF medication.
According to the release, the cancer rate for the non-JIA cohort was 13 to 17 per 100,000 person years, while children with JIA had a cancer rate of 55 per 100,000 person-years. The team was unable to identify any malignancies in study participants with JIA who had been treated with anti-TNF therapy.
“It appears clear that there is an increased risk of malignancy in children with JIA, but it’s not all attributable to TNF inhibitors,” study author Timothy Beukelman, MD, MSCE, stated in the release. “At least part of the increased risk, and perhaps even all of it, appears to be attributable to the disease itself, or to other medications used in treatment such as methotrexate.”
Reference:
- Beukelman T, Haynes K, Curtis JR, et al. Rates of malignancy associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and its treatment. Arthritis Rheum. 2012. doi: 10.1002/art.34348.
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