BSR Response to Report on Skin Complications with Use of TNF Alpha Blockers

The BSR views with some concern the report just published by the Radboud University in Arthritis Research and Therapy suggesting that patients being treated with TNF Alpha blocking drugs are more susceptible to skin complications. In the view of the BSR the reported frequency of skin complaints in this group appears rather higher than in many previously published studies. Professor A Silman, Director of ARC Epidemiology Unit which is running the BSR’s Biologics Register has made the following comment;

“Eczema, drug-related eruptions and skin infections are common in the general population. They are also linked to standard treatments used in rheumatoid arthritis.

In this current report, although there was a control sample they were very different from those patients who had received anti-TNF agents, particularly 40% of the latter had received steroids compared to only 7% of the controls. The anti-TNF patients also had been treated with several other powerful rheumatological drugs much more so than the control group. It is thus difficult from these data to know whether the anti-TNF agents were responsible for this increased frequency of skin conditions. The BSR Biologics Register, by rigorously following up comparable groups of subjects will be able to provide more robust answers to this question in the near future”