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EULAR 2026 Rheumatology RoundUp

Jack Cush, MD

It’s time for Rheumatology RoundUp from EULAR 2026 from London, UK. Drs. Artie Kavanaugh and Jack Cush review their choice presentations from the meeting, offering their perspectives on impact and applicability.

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Large French nationwide cohort (n=56,591 SpA patients) showed that >6 months/year of targeted therapy exposure was associated with reduced overall cancer risk (wHR 0.86), especially for haematological malignancies (wHR 0.65). Reassuring long-term safety signal. Abstr OP0238

Antoni Chan MD (Prof) @synovialjoints( View Tweet )

Sarcoidosis increases the risk of MGUS and multiple myeloma. Propensity matched Data from a large global collaborative network study with 40k pts. POS0231 #EULAR2026 @RheumNow https://t.co/mygYCjigFV

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Bella Mehta @bella_mehta( View Tweet )
Management of rheumatologic immune-related adverse events (irAEs), inflammatory conditions triggered by immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) cancer therapy Abstr OP0358 @RheumNow #EULAR2026 https://t.co/hnU7L7RnU8

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Antoni Chan MD (Prof) @synovialjoints( View Tweet )
🎗️ Do targeted therapies raise cancer risk in SpA? French nationwide cohort (n=56,591): NO In fact, prolonged exposure REDUCES risk (wHR 0.86), especially haematological. #OP0238 #EULAR2026 @RheumNow https://t.co/dDveAmWpdX

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Nelly ZIADE 🍀 @Nellziade( View Tweet )
#OP0238: French SNDS cohort found longer exposure to targeted therapies in SpA (>6months) was assoc with a lower overall cancer risk vs shorter exposure, esp for haematologic malignancies. Data add to long-term safety evidence for targeted therapies in SpA. #EULAR2026 @RheumNow

Mrinalini Dey @DrMiniDey( View Tweet )

#OP0225 at #EULAR2026: In this nationwide French cohort, patients with IMIDs had nearly 2x risk of HPV-related cancers or severe dysplasia versus matched controls. Risk was particularly increased in SLE, reinforcing the importance of HPV vaccination and screening. @RheumNow

Mrinalini Dey @DrMiniDey( View Tweet )

safety data

JAK Safety Debate Continues: Stronger VTE signal, less clear cancer signal

Mrinalini Dey, MD

Few topics in rheumatology have reshaped prescribing behaviour as dramatically as the safety concerns surrounding JAK inhibitors following ORAL Surveillance and the subsequent FDA and EMA warnings.

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#OP090 at #EULAR2026: In this nationwide Danish study, RA patients with lung cancer had similar survival outcomes to patients without RA. Importantly, immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment did not appear to worsen outcomes in patients with pre-existing RA. @RheumNow

Mrinalini Dey @DrMiniDey( View Tweet )

#OP087 explored cancer polygenic risk scores (PRS) in RA. RA was assoc with lower risks of breast and colorectal cancer across all PRS categories, while high prostate cancer PRS may identify RA patients with increased early prostate cancer diagnoses. @RheumNow #EULAR2026 https://t.co/WMqqSFADlW

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Mrinalini Dey @DrMiniDey( View Tweet )
Cancer risk with JAK inhibitors remains a major focus at #EULAR2026. In #OP086, analysis from 14 international RA registries and >60000 treatment courses found no statistically significant increase in overall or subtype-specific malignancy risk with JAKi versus TNFi. @RheumNow https://t.co/JeOmTufYwo

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Mrinalini Dey @DrMiniDey( View Tweet )
Veterans Administration study of 301 #RA pts Rx w/ immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) for cancer shows all cause mortality in ICI Rx Cancer pts was no worse when RA pts took ICIs (1.09; 0.94–1.25). Cause of death similar; Infx were rare (<1.0%) https://t.co/3ZYujU5nyE https://t.co/MCDcdWHcVx

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
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Count Your Telangiectasias (5.29.2026)

Jack Cush, MD

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal articles and missed quiz questions.

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In this week's RheumIQ quiz: An RA patient has a current or new cancer. With which cancer should you avoid/stop the use of a TNF inhibitor? See if you got it right at https://t.co/DTabBEfjj9 https://t.co/tVYUEjAPy3

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
Medicare analysis of RA pts w/ metastatic nonsmall cell lung CA (mNSCLC) looked at 663 ICI-treated pts - 46% Rx w/ glucocorticoids (median Pred 6.6 mg/d). GC use was not associated with survival outcomes https://t.co/mwQeAgyKTC https://t.co/SR2XRD5Rhx

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
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A Patient’s Plea for a New Paradigm in Autoimmune Disease

Jack Cush, MD

A current article in Nature Reviews Rheumatology has a patient boldly asking why we rheumatologists aren't more like her oncologists?

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Which autoimmune condition carries the highest relative risk for lymphoma? Test your knowledge in the latest RheumIQ quiz at https://t.co/TBlB4pmnKa https://t.co/sx8fpdHgHN

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
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Neoplasia and Autoimmune Disease

Jack Cush, MD

Malignancy rivals cardiovascular disease as a leading cause of death in patients with systemic autoimmune diseases. Chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation can drive oncogenesis, while antitumor immune responses can trigger autoimmune phenomena (paraneoplastic syndromes, checkpoint

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Aspirin Cardiovascular Prevention in Giant Cell Arteritis

Jack Cush, MD

A retrospective target trial emulations has shown that low-dose aspirin (ASA) given with a giant cell arteritis (GCA) diagnosis is associated with a lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), but a higher risk of GI bleeding.

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Malignancies Not Increased with Biologic Therapies The risk of malignancy in RA patients receiving biologic agents was evaluated by metanalysis of RCTs and found no significant increased risk of malignancy compared with other DMARDs or with placebo. https://t.co/ZEO4jP5RwA https://t.co/C1YeTSh7ZN

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
Screening High Risk Myositis Patients for Cancer An Italian retrospective study of 411 idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) patients applied IMACS criteria to assess the risk of cancer and found significantly more cancers in those at high risk. https://t.co/AHvC5xfsCr https://t.co/Bd4VMRX9PU

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
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Screening High Risk Myositis Patients for Cancer

Jack Cush, MD

An Italian retrospective study of 411 idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) patients applied IMACS criteria to assess the risk of cancer and found significantly more cancers in those at high risk.

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Italian retrospective study 411 IIM pts classified cancer risk per IMACS criteria: 44% high-, 38% intermed- 18% standard-risk. 9.2% had CA w/in 3yrs. Signif more in high-risk (OR 4.05). CA predictors: TIF1γ (OR  12.3), SAE1 (OR = 11.9) https://t.co/j4gA0g79bI https://t.co/Pt5nMs89bl

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )
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Top Four and More (4.10.2026)

Jack Cush, MD

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from RheumNow.com this week - including his top four favorite subjects.

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Hopkins Myositis study of 637 dermatomyositis pts - FLARES were assoc w/ DM Dz activity; manifest as rash (76%), motor weakness (58%), Pulm (19%), arthritis (12%). O nly 2–5% of Flare pts had cancer Dx w/in 6–24-mos https://t.co/AKC9oIKAS7 https://t.co/26q8FfkUfl

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Dr. John Cush @RheumNow( View Tweet )

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The quality of the meeting was on par with the host city, with extensive data presented on a range of topics, from social media to drug safety. The organization committee did a great job and I got the feeling that most people felt the congress was user friendly given the magnitude of the event. During this year’s meeting, I had the privilege of working with the RheumNow team, which gave me the opportunity to hone my social media skills and get my Twitter game on. After reviewing plenty of posters and going to numerous presentations, here are my top take home messages as classified by disease state.

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