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. 2023 Jul 5;62(7):2539-2543.
doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac614.

Association between anti-SSSCA1 antibodies and cancer in systemic sclerosis

Rachel S Wallwork  1 , Ami A Shah  1 , Livia Casciola-Rosen  1
Affiliations

Association between anti-SSSCA1 antibodies and cancer in systemic sclerosis

Rachel S Wallwork et al. Rheumatology (Oxford). .

Abstract

Objective: To define the clinical phenotype of SSc patients with antibodies against Sjogren's syndrome (SS)/scleroderma autoantigen 1 (SSSCA1), and to examine the association between these antibodies and cancer in SSc patients.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study using data from 209 patients with SSc and cancer, and 205 SSc patients without cancer. All were randomly selected from the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center Research Registry. Antibodies against SSSCA1 were assayed by immunoprecipitation of 35S-methionine-labelled protein generated by in vitro transcription and translation. We performed logistic regression analysis to examine the relationship between anti-SSSCA1 antibodies and cancer.

Results: Among the 414 study patients, 31 (7%) were anti-SSSCA1 antibody positive. Antibody-positive patients were more likely to have severe RP, a lower minimum ejection fraction, a trend towards more severe heart involvement and a lower baseline diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide percent predicted than anti-SSSCA1-negative patients. Patients with cancer were significantly more likely to be anti-SSSCA1 positive compared with those without cancer [22/209 (11%) vs 9/205 (4%), respectively; P = 0.018]. Among patients with cancer, there was a trend towards longer cancer-SSc interval in anti-SSSCA1-positive patients compared with anti-SSSCA1-negative patients. Patients with anti-SSSCA1 antibodies had an increased adjusted risk of cancer (odds ratio 2.46, 95% CI 1.06, 5.70) compared with anti-SSSCA1-negative patients.

Conclusions: These data suggest anti-SSSCA1 antibody status may be of utility as a cancer biomarker in SSc. Anti-SSSCA1-positive patients with SSc may be more likely to have severe Raynaud's and cardiac involvement.

Keywords: SSSCA1; SSc; autoantibody; autoimmunity; malignancy.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Among patients with cancer, comparison of cancer–SSc interval by anti-SSSCA1 antibody status. SSc onset is defined as date of RP or first non-RP symptom, whichever was first. On the horizontal axis, positive values denote cancer diagnosis after SSc onset, and negative values indicate cancer preceding SSc onset. SSSCA1: SS/scleroderma autoantigen 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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