Skip Navigation


Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on March 30, 2008
Rheumatology 2008 47(5):698-701; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken130
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
47/5/698    most recent
ken130v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hemminki, K.
Right arrow Articles by Sundquist, J.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hemminki, K.
Right arrow Articles by Sundquist, J.
Related Collections
Right arrow Rheumatoid Arthritis
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Cancer risk in hospitalized rheumatoid arthritis patients

K. Hemminki1,2, X. Li2, K. Sundquist2 and J. Sundquist2

1Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany and 2Department of Family and Community Medicine Stockholm, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden.

Correspondence to: K. Hemminki, DKFZ, Im Neuenheimer Feld 580, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. E-mail: k.hemminki{at}dkfz.de


  Abstract

Objectives. Patients diagnosed with RA have been at an increased risk of many cancers and at a decreased risk of some cancers. We planned to revisit the theme by using a nation-wide population of RA patients.

Methods. An RA research database was constructed by identifying hospitalized RA patients from the Hospital Discharge Register and cancer patients from the Cancer Registry. Earlier studies from Sweden have shown that some 75% of RA patients have been hospitalized at some time point. Follow-up of 42 262 RA patients was carried out from year 1980 to 2004 including separate follow-ups for shorter intervals. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated for cancer in RA patients by comparing with subjects without RA.

Results. Many cancers were in excess in RA patients, especially Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and squamous cell skin cancer; a novel association was found for non-thyroid endocrine tumours. Colon, rectal and endometrial cancers were decreased in RA patients. When RA patients were first hospitalized after 1999, the SIRs for melanoma, squamous cell skin and upper aerodigestive tract cancers and for leukaemia were increased compared with previous periods.

Conclusions. This study, the largest so far published, quantified the increased and decreased site-specific risks of cancer in RA patients. The recent increases in the risks of squamous cell skin and upper aerodigestive tract cancers, melanoma and leukaemia call for continuous vigilance and recording of changes in treatment.

KEY WORDS: Subsequent cancer, Changing risk, Age at onset, National databases

Submitted 31 January 2008; revised version accepted 3 March 2008.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.