The Food and Drug Administration will begin studies to find out if there is any connection between the use of some drugs in treating children arthritis and the development of cancer in these cases.

The drugs that are to be studied are part of a family known as tumor necrosis factor blockers and are used to treat the intestinal disorder called Crohn’s disease also. The drugs that will be part of the survey are Abbott Labs Humira, Schering-Plough's Remicade and Amgen Inc. and Wyeth’s Enbrel among others.

If the commission will decide that the above mentioned drugs are not suitable for use anymore, the companies that are producing them could suffer a serious financial blow. The drugs are among the best selling products of the companies, with Humira bringing Abbot Lab no less than then $3 billion last year, and Remicade selling a $1.65 billion worth of units.

The study will take into account 30 reports of children and adults that have developed the disease while taking tumor necrosis factor blockers. The first of the reported cases is dated 1998 while the last one is as recent as 2008. Most of the cases were lymphomas, but leukemia, melanoma and other sort of cancers were reported also.

Following previous studies, the companies had to label their TNF blockers as presenting the risk of being a factor of cancer development, but the drugs had gotten FDA’s approval.

The new study will be focused on the risks younger patients have of developing the disease that is the second most common cause of death in the US.