No Cancer Risk from Psoriatic Arthritis Save

Inflammmation is a strong risk factor for malignancy. Yet there are mixed results on whether patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsAg) augments the incidence of cancer and all-cause and cause-mortality.

A study from the national British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register examined the risk of cancer, assessed by standardized incidence ratios (SIRs)  or standardized mortality ratios (SMRs).

Among 709 PsA patient they found 34 cancers and 41 deaths.

Alhough the risk of malignancy overall was not increased (SIR 0.94; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.34), there was a significantly increased 2 fold risk of of non-melanoma skin cancer (SIR 2.12; 95% CI: 1.19, 3.50).

Among these PsA patients there was an increase in all-cause mortality rate (SMR 1.56; CI: 1.12, 2.11), but death from malignancy was not increased.  SMR was primarily increased by death from coronary heart disease.

In patients with severe PsA, the overall incidence of malignancy was similar to that of the general population.