Extended reports
Study of eight cases of cancer in 426 rheumatoid arthritis
patients treated with methotrexate
a CHU Lapeyronie, Montpellier, France:
Service d'Immuno-Rhumatologie,
Fédération de Rhumatologie , b Département
d'Information Médicale
Correspondence to: Professeur Jacques Sany, Service d'Immuno-Rhumatologie, CHU Lapeyronie, 34295 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
Accepted for publication 24
October 1996
OBJECTIVE
To report cancer cases in 426 rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with methotrexate, and determine
whether there was an increased incidence of cancer compared with
patients never treated with methotrexate (rheumatoid controls) and to
the whole regional population.
METHODSThe duration of methotrexate treatment
was 37.4 (SD 27.9) months. This population was compared with 420 rheumatoid arthritis controls and with a regional population of
812 344 people. Life table analysis was performed to compare the
cancer incidence in the two rheumatoid populations. Adjustment for
potentially confounding factors was done. The indirect standardisation
method was used to compare each rheumatoid population with the regional population.
RESULTSEight cases of cancer (1.88%; 4.04 cases/1000 person years) were diagnosed in the methotrexate
population v six (1.43%; 58.8 cases/1000 person years) in
the rheumatoid controls. The life table method showed a higher
incidence of cancer in the rheumatoid controls (P = 0.0001). In a
multivariate analysis (Cox model), the only significant factor
explaining this difference in the cancer incidence was age (P = 0.02).
In the regional population there were 6418 new cases of cancer (0.79%;
2.85 cases/1000 person years). By the indirect standardisation method,
the ratio of observed cases to expected cases of cancer in each of the
rheumatoid populations was not significantly different from 1.
CONCLUSIONSIn these eight cases,
methotrexate was not found to be responsible for generating
cancers. However, because of data regarding lymphomas and methotrexate,
and because of the short follow up, especially in the control group,
longer prospective studies are warranted.
© 1997 by Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Mariette, X., Cazals-Hatem, D., Warszawki, J., Liote, F., Balandraud, N., Sibilia, J.
(2002). Lymphomas in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with methotrexate: a 3-year prospective study in France. Blood
99: 3909-3915
[Abstract] [Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Immunology (including allergy)
-
Connective tissue disease
-
Degenerative joint disease
-
Musculoskeletal syndromes
- Rheumatoid arthritis
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
