Best of 2024: Lung Cancer in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Interstitial Lung Disease Save
Editor's note: this article originally appeared August 12, 2024 and is being shared again as a Best of 2024. Enjoy!
A matched cohort study from the Veterans Health Administration shows that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a >50% increased risk of lung cancer, a 3-fold higher risk of lung cancer in RA-interstitial lung disease (ILD).
A retrospective, cohort study (2000-2019) matched RA and RA-ILD patients (up to 1:10) with controls to assess for lung cancer; adjusting for race, ethnicity, smoking status, Agent Orange exposure, and comorbidity burden.
A total of 72,795 RA patients were matched to 633,937 non-RA persons (mean 63 years; 88% male). They found 17,099 incident lung cancers.
- RA increased lung cancer risk (aHR 1.58 [1.52, 1.64]), which persisted in never-smokers (aHR 1.65) and incident RA (aHR 1.54)
- Prevalent RA-ILD (n=757) had a greater lung cancer risk (aHR 3.25 [2.13, 4.95]) vs non-RA controls
- Higher than RA without ILD (aHR 1.57; 1.51, 1.64]).
Increased lung cancer surveillance in RA, and especially RA-ILD, is warranted to identify this leading cause of cancer death, especially in RA.
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