Accelerated Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma during Immunosuppressive Therapy with Abatacept for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Accelerated Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma during Immunosuppressive Therapy with Abatacept for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Intern Med. 2018 Aug 24;: Authors: Yoshiji S, Takahashi K, Sawada K, Mishima M, Eso Y, Morita M, Takai A, Marusawa H, Ueda Y, Mimori T, Seno H Abstract Abatacept, a cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 immunoglobulin recombinant fusion protein, is an immunosuppressive agent indicated for rheumatoid arthritis. Although no significant increase in malignancy has been reported in abatacept-treated patients, whether or not abatacept accelerates tumor progression in specific cancer types remains unclear. We herein report a 66-year-old woman who showed unusually rapid progression of hepatocellular carcinoma following abatacept therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Abatacept was speculated to have accelerated her hepatocellular carcinoma progression in the setting of her preexisting risk factors: autoimmune hepatitis and long-term methotrexate use. We propose close tumor surveillance be performed during abatacept therapy, especially for high-risk patients. PMID: 30146566 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Internal Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Intern Med Source Type: research