Bernatsky and colleagues have shown cancer risk factors in incident systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Researchers analyzed an SLE cohort of 1,668 patients, over an average of 9 years follow-up and found 65 cancers: 15 breast; 10 nonmelanoma skin; 7 lung; 6 hematologic; 6 prostate; 5 melanoma; 3 cervical; 3 renal; 2 each gastric, head and neck, and thyroid; and, 1 each rectal, sarcoma, thymoma, and uterine cancers.

Hepatitis B reactivation is an uncommon complication of biologic therapy use. Now, a serologic study of  rheumatoid arthritis patients shows that HBV reactivation is seen with rituximab, and less so with abatacept, especially in patients without hepatitis B antibody (HBsAb) positiv

Arthritis numbers are rising, and people are finally talking about osteoarthritis. Also, ACR 2021 is just a few weeks away - are you ready? Finally, I'll review cases and questions submitted by viewers in Ask Cush Anything (#ACA). This, and nearly a dozen news items and reports, are discussed in this week's podcast. Let's begin.

While myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs) and myositis-associated autoantibodies (MAAs) may have prognostic value through their clinical associations, many patients will not have them and overall, they are poorly predictive of a malignancy risk. 

The latest CDC estimates of the national prevalence of arthritis and arthritis-attributable activity limitations (AAAL) show a continued increase in absolute number: 58.5 million (23.7%) U.S. adults have arthritis, 25.7 million (43.9%) of whom have AAAL. 

Patients with longstanding systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who were considered frail were more likely to accrue disease damage over time, a secondary analysis of data from a Chicago lupus cohort found.

Almost three years ago to the day, I did a podcast entitled, "I wanna new drug." As I go over this week's podcast, I want to say it again. I want a new drug safe enough to use during pregnancy, for PMR, for GVHD, and more. I'm going to cover these, and other topics including lupus, COVID breakthrough infections, and statin use and the risk of RA, as I review the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.

Inclusion body myositis (IBM) patients tend to be older than those with idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM), but the scope of disease beyond their myositis is not appreciated.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) had two to four times higher risk for serious infection requiring hospitalization, a nationwide Swedish study found.

This week: high science that affect future treatments; breakthrough infections in our patients, and what's up with that; and soon your radiologist is going to be replaced by AI. This and more in our review of the news and journal articles from the past week.