Malignancies in systemic rheumatic diseases: A mini review

Front Immunol. 2023 Feb 28:14:1095526. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1095526. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

There is an increased risk of malignancies in patients with many systemic rheumatic diseases, which negatively impact on their quality of life. The risk and types of malignancies can differ by the type of rheumatic diseases. Possible mechanisms linking them are dynamic and complicated, including chronic inflammation and damage in rheumatic disease, inability to clear oncogenic infections, shared etiology and some anti-rheumatic therapies. Although certain disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have been proved to be potentially carcinogenic, the majority of them were not associated with increased risk of most malignancies in patients with systemic rheumatic diseases.

Keywords: disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs; malignancy; mechanism; rheumatic disease; risk.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antirheumatic Agents* / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Inflammation / drug therapy
  • Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Neoplasms* / epidemiology
  • Neoplasms* / etiology
  • Quality of Life
  • Rheumatic Diseases* / complications
  • Rheumatic Diseases* / drug therapy

Substances

  • Antirheumatic Agents

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [82270183 to XZ] and Key R&D plan [2021YFF0703704 to XZ].