The Prevalence of Cancer in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) who were Under Treatment with Natalizumab (Tysabri): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Amirreza Nasirzadeh; Reza Jahanshahi; Mahsa Ghajarzadeh; Aida Mohammadi; Mohammad Ali Sahraian; Abdorreza Naser Moghadasi

doi:10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_77_22

The Prevalence of Cancer in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) who were Under Treatment with Natalizumab (Tysabri): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Int J Prev Med. 2023 Sep 28:14:114. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_77_22. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Amirreza Nasirzadeh¹, Reza Jahanshahi², Mahsa Ghajarzadeh^{3

4}, Aida Mohammadi⁴, Mohammad Ali Sahraian³, Abdorreza Naser Moghadasi³

Affiliations

¹ Student Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
² Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
³ Multiple Sclerosis Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Universal Council of Epidemiology (UCE), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: To determine the pooled prevalence of cancer in subjects with multiple sclerosis (MS) who received Natalizumab.

Methods: Two researchers systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, google scholar, and gray literature including references of the included studies. The search strategy which was used in PubMed was ("Disseminated Sclerosis" OR "multiple sclerosis" OR "MS" OR "Acute Fulminating") AND ("Cancer" OR "Neoplasia*" OR "Neoplasm*" OR "Tumor*" OR "Malignancy" OR "Benign Neoplasm" OR "Malignant neoplasm") AND ("Tysabri" OR "Antegren" OR "natalizumab" OR "Modifying Therapy"). Results: We found 1,993 articles by literature search, and 1,573 studies remained after removing duplicate studies. For metaanalysis, we used the extracted data of eight studies. The pooled prevalence of cancer in patients who received Natalizumab was 2% (95%CI: 1-3%; I^2: 99.4%, P < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of basal cell carcinoma in patients with cancer was 12% (95%CI: 5-20%; I²:50.3%, P = 0.13).

Conclusions: The main finding of this systematic review and metaanalysis is that the pooled prevalence of cancer in subjects who suffer from MS and received natalizumab was 2%.

Keywords: Multiple sclerosis; neoplasm; prevalence.

Publication types

Review