Estimating cancer risk in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases exposed to varying doses of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors

Abstract

Background: The safety profile of high doses of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) therapy for cancer risk in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) remains uncertain. We evaluated the risk of cancer development in patients with IMIDs exposed to standard and high doses of TNFi compared with those never exposed to TNFi.

Methods: A cohort study was conducted using the Japanese claims database encompassing over 4.6 million individuals from 2013 to 2021. The study included patients aged 16 years or older with new-onset IMIDs, such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriasis, who had no cancer history. The subdistribution hazard ratios (SHR) for cancer risk in TNFi standard and high dose groups comparing with TNFi unexposed group were estimated using a Fine and Gray model that accounted for the competing risk of death unrelated to cancer. The high dose of TNFi was defined as either a dose escalation or shortening of the intervals during administrations from the standard dose treatment.

Results: We identified a total of 42,006 patients with new-onset IMIDs (40,573 in TNFi unexposed, 876 in TNFi standard dose, and 557 in TNFi high dose) and 1211 (2.8%) patients developed cancer, yielding an incidence rate of 787.8 (739.9-828.1) per 100,000 person-years. Neither the standard nor high doses of TNFi significantly increased the cancer risk (TNFi standard dose vs. TNFi unexposed, adjusted SHR, 0.65 [0.40-1.08]; TNF high dose vs. TNFi unexposed, adjusted SHR, 1.12 [0.67-1.87]).

Conclusions: There is no association between varying doses of TNFi therapy and cancer risk in IMIDs.

Keywords: Cancer risk; Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases; Inflammatory bowel disease; Psoriasis; Rheumatoid arthritis; Tumour necrosis factor inhibitors.