Epidemiology
British Journal of Cancer (2009) 100, 1499–1502. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6605027 www.bjcancer.com
Published online 7 April 2009
Cancer risk in hospitalised psoriasis patients: a follow-up study in Sweden
J Ji1, X Shu2, K Sundquist2, J Sundquist1 and K Hemminki2,3
- 1Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Sweden
- 2Center for Family and Community Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden
- 3Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Correspondence: Dr J Ji, Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, CRC, hus 28, plan 11, ing 72, UMAS, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden; E-mail: Jianguang.ji@med.lu.se
Received 11 February 2009; Revised 13 March 2009; Accepted 16 March 2009; Published online 7 April 2009.
Abstract
We examined overall and specific cancer risks among Swedish subjects who had been hospitalised one or more times for psoriasis. A database was created by identifying such patients from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register and linking them with the Cancer Registry. Follow-up of patients was carried out from the last hospitalisation through 2004. A total of 15 858 patients were hospitalised for psoriasis during 1965–2004, of whom 1408 developed cancer, giving an overall standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) of 1.33. A significant excess was noted for squamous cell skin cancer, and for cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, oesophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, lung, kidney and bladder as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Many of these may reflect the effects of alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking. Patients with multiple hospitalisations showed high risk, particularly for oesophageal (SIR 6.97) and skin (SIR 4.76) cancers.
Keywords:
psoriasis, national databases