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. 2022 Jun 13;12(6):965.
doi: 10.3390/jpm12060965.

Potential Cancer Risk in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Longitudinal Korean Population-Based Analysis

Hyo Geun Choi  1 , Ho Suk Kang  2 , Hyun Lim  2 , Joo-Hee Kim  3 , Ji Hee Kim  4 , Seong-Jin Cho  5 , Eun Sook Nam  5 , Kyueng-Whan Min  6 , Ha Young Park  7 , Nan Young Kim  8 , Mi Jung Kwon  9
Affiliations

Potential Cancer Risk in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Longitudinal Korean Population-Based Analysis

Hyo Geun Choi et al. J Pers Med. .

Abstract

The potential link between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and cancer incidence needs to be validated due to inconsistent results between Asian and Western countries. We explored the long-term association of RA with the overall and organ-specific cancer incidence using nationwide population data. This longitudinal follow-up study (2002-2015) included 3070 patients with RA and 12,280 controls (1:4 propensity score-matched for sex, age, residence, and income) from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort database. A Cox proportional hazard model estimated the hazard ratio for malignancy following adjusting for covariates. Despite the similar overall cancer incidence between RA and control groups, differences in the incidence of organ-specific cancers were noted: the RA group had a 1.63-fold greater likelihood for lung cancer (95% confidence interval 1.11-2.40). In the sex-stratified subgroup analyses, the male RA patients exhibited higher odds of lung and thyroid cancer but a lower probability for colorectal cancer; no such associations were detected in either female patients with RA or age subgroups. In summary, the higher likelihood for lung cancer in Korean RA patients, especially thyroid and lung cancer in male RA patients, seems to be characteristic, which needs to be carefully monitored.

Keywords: cancer; hazard ratio; incidence; malignancy; nationwide longitudinal follow-up study; rheumatoid arthritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A schematic illustration of the participant selection process in this study. From a total sample of 514,866 patients, 3070 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) participants were matched with 12,280 controls based on age, sex, income, and residential region. Abbreviation: CCI, Charlson comorbidity index.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier probability of the incidence of lung cancer in the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) population and in controls during a 14-year period commencing from the index date.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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