TOPLINE

Patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) exposed to targeted therapy for more than 6 months per year did not have a higher overall risk for cancer compared with those exposed to targeted therapy for 6 months or less.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers analyzed data from a French health insurance database to assess whether the duration of targeted therapy affected the risk for cancer in patients with SpA, including those with psoriatic arthritis.
• They included 56,591 adults (mean age, 44 years; 53.9% women) who initiated targeted therapy between January 2014 and September 2022.
• Exposure to targeted therapy was assessed annually and classified according to duration as either 6 months or less per year or more than 6 months per year, with follow-up beginning after a 3-month gap.
• Researchers assessed incident cancers and analyzed solid and hematologic malignancies separately.
• Patients were followed up for a median duration of 5 years.

TAKEAWAY

• A total of 1224 cancers occurred during follow-up; of these, 1029 were solid cancers, 116 were hematologic malignancies, and 79 were unclassified cancers.
• Patients exposed to targeted therapy for more than 6 months per year had a slightly lower overall risk for cancer than those exposed for 6 months or less (weighted hazard ratio [HR], 0.86; 95% CI, 0.75-0.99), although the finding was borderline statistically significant.
• The reduced risk associated with more than 6 months of targeted therapy exposure vs 6 months or less of exposure was observed for hematologic malignancies (weighted HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.42-0.99) but not for solid cancers.
• In a post hoc sensitivity analysis, cumulative exposure across years was not associated with the risk for cancer.

IN PRACTICE

"Although the observational design of this study precludes any causal inference and residual confounding (such as tobacco or alcohol use or disease activity) cannot be fully excluded, these findings provide reassuring evidence regarding the long-term safety of targeted therapy in terms of cancer risk among patients with SpA," the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Karine Tankovic, MD, MSc, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Créteil, France. It was published online on August 17, 2026, in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

LIMITATIONS

Researchers relied on administrative coding to identify patients. They lacked information on disease activity, tobacco and alcohol use, and BMI. The study did not have a control population.

DISCLOSURES

The study did not receive specific funding. One author reported receiving a Master 2 grant from the Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris. Two authors reported receiving consulting fees, research support, or financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, Biogen, and Lilly. Detailed author disclosures are reported in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.