REVIEW - Malignancy and RA

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Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2007 Oct;9(5):421-6.

Malignancy and rheumatoid arthritis.

Askling J.

Clinical Epidemiology Unit M9:01, Department of Medicine Solna,

Karolinska University Hospital Solna, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden.

The occurrence of cancer is not an infrequent event in patients with

rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Indeed, following diagnosis of RA at a

typical age (55 years), one in five patients will be diagnosed with

cancer. In the vast majority of such cases, the cancer has nothing to

do with RA or its treatment; rather, it represents the " background "

risk applicable to all humans. In some cases, the cancer occurs as a

result of factors also associated with the risk of developing RA (eg,

smoking), even though no direct link exists between the cancer and the

RA. In a fraction of cases, however, the cancer is causally associated

with the RA disease or its treatments. This review summarizes our

current understanding of the occurrence of cancer in RA, possible

links to RA disease and to traditional and newer RA treatments.

PMID: 17915099

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17915099

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Not an MD