Anti-TNF Antibody Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Risk of Serious Infections and Malignancies
Of all the new drugs on the market, this one definitely has me worried. By blocking one of our tools we use to fight both infections and cancer, you open up a Pandora’s box of problems if used long term. But never fear!! The powers that be have fully evaluated the risk of cancer (a disease which takes decades to manifest..) and serious infection when someone has been taking this class of drugs for up to one year. Wow.
How short sighted can we be? So now, when a patient is questioning their doctor about this class of drugs, he can honestly say that studies have found increased rates of cancer, but the numbers were small. Not to sound like a doomsayer, but check this again after 10 years. Most of the patients on this class of drugs are NOT being told about anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory diets and how much they can influence the disease severity in these patients.