The association between tumour necrosis factor inhibitors [TNFi] and malignancy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] is not well understood. Our aim was to systematically evaluate the impact of TNFi use on risk of malignancy in IBD patients in daily clinical practice.
We searched Pubmed, Embase and Scopus until March 1, 2020 for observational cohort studies on adult IBD patients reporting malignancy occurrence and TNFi use.
Twenty-eight studies [20 retrospective and eight prospective] were included, involving 298 717 IBD patients. Mean age at inclusion ranged from 28 to >65 years. Mean follow-up varied from 7 to 80 months. Infliximab was the most frequently used TNFi [13/28 studies, 46.4%], followed by adalimumab [3/28, 10.7%], while both infliximab and adalimumab were evaluated in five studies [17.8%]. In total, 692 malignancies were diagnosed in IBD patients treated with TNFi, accounting for an overall occurrence of 1.0%. The most frequent malignancies were non-melanoma skin cancers [123/692, 17.8%], digestive malignancies [120/692, 17.3%] and haematological malignancies [106/692, 15.3%]. The association between TNFi and malignancy was evaluated in 11 studies [39.3%]: no significant association was found in ten studies, while an increased risk of lymphoma in patients exposed to TNFi was reported in one study.
TNFi treatment is not associated with an increased risk of malignancy in IBD patients in real-life settings. Further large studies are needed to assess the prognosis of patients exposed to TNFi and risk of recurrence or new cancers in subjects with personal malignancy history.