Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights from the news and social media in the past week on RheumNow.com

A recent report from Johns Hopkins, published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, describes 13 cancer patients treated with the immune checkpoint inhibitors, ipilimumab or nivolumab, who developed inflammatory arthritis and sicca syndrome.

Tocilizumab is currently listed as a Category "C" pregnancy risk based on limited pre-clinical (animal) data that was negative.

Since the introduction of TNF inhibitors nearly 20 years ago, concerns over a potential associated cancer risk have abounded. The recent ACR RA treatment guidelines have addressed this recently, stating that patients with any solid tumor cancer or risk thereof should be treated as if they ha

Researchers from Bristol, UK have published a Cochrane review studying the effects of biologic therapies on fatigue.

Dr. Cush reviews highlights published this week at RheumNow.com.

French researchers recruited 486 patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) from over 40 centers throughout France, and compared their outcomes to age and sex matched individuals randomly selected from the general population. Both groups were followed for 5 years and assessed for the risk of serious infections.

At the EULAR 2016 meeting, new EULAR recommendations for the management of Behçet's disease (BD) were presented.

Accepting a single pharmaceutical industry-sponsored meal was associated with higher rates of prescribing certain drugs to Medicare patients by physicians, with more, and costlier, meals associated with greater increases in prescribing, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Me

The EULAR Annual European Congress of Rheumatology meeting was held in London from June 8-11, 2016 and was well attended by thousands. This year’s meeting had over 2,000 poster displays, and the EULAR 2016 Congress presented new recommendations on the management of rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, and fibromyalgia.

The impact of systemic glucocorticoid exposure on fracture risk among new-onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was studied using administrative claims data detailing the treatments and outcomes of 42,127 newly diagnosed RA patients (between 2005-2012).

Sjogren's syndrome is a highly prevalent disorder, affecting women ten times more frequently than men.  Although the typical onset follows menopause, a minority of women may develop primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) during child-bearing years.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, reports and highlights from EULAR and the last 2 weeks from RheumNow.com.

The combined analysis of 130,315 rheumatoid arthritis patients from 11 European registries did not reveal an association between invasive (malignant) melanoma and the use of biologic therapies.

Blocking the type 1 interferon receptor with the monoclonal antibody anifrolumab shows promise as a treatment for moderate-to-severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), according to a phase IIb study presented here.

Lancet has published the results of the U-ACT-early study assessing the efficacy of monotherapy versus combination therapy using an interleukin-6 receptor-blocking monoclonal antibody, tocilizumab, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

JAMA has reported the results of an 18-year National Inpatient Sample, a database of US non-federal hospitalizations.

Desiree van der Heidje, MD, PhD presented the results of a 16-week, phase II, dose-ranging study of tofacitinib (TOFA) in patients with active ankylosing spondylitis. 

Methotrexate , a cornerstone drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, has led to 90 hospitalizations and 7 deaths according to a recent report from the Medical Journal of Australia. 

In April and May 2016, RheumNow sent 82 tweets regarding news, research and teaching points that strongly impacted the rheumatology community and resulted in a reach of 203,500 impressions, with 136 mentions, and over 6378 visits to RheumNow.com. Here are the top tweets from April and May.