Here, we report our finding of variants in the PHF19-TRAF1-C5 region on chromosome 9q33.2 that show strong and consistent association across three independent RA case-control studies (1732 cases/2502 controls), paralleling and extending the results of a whole-genome association study [34] and a candidate gene study [35]. This evidence concerns the gene PHF19 and rheumatoid arthritis.