[Clinical analysis of 31 ankylosing spondylitis patients with malignancies]

To investigate the clinical features of patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and malignancies.

In the study, 31 AS patients with malignancies in Peking University First Hospital from January 2006 to July 2014 were enrolled, and their clinical features were compared with AS patients without malignancies at the same time in the hospital. Then their general characteristics, clinical and imaging findings of AS, characteristics of malignancies and prognosis were retrospectively analyzed.

The 31 cases of AS with malignacies accounted for 11.8% of all AS patients admitted to the hospital in the same period. They comprised of 27 males (87%) and 4 females (13%). Their mean ages at diagnosis of AS were 43±17 years (range: 16-76 years), and their mean ages at diagnosis of malignancy were 60±12 years (range: 31-87 years) respectively. Malignancy was diagnosed after the establishment of AS in 27 of our patients. Furthermore, imaging changes typical of AS were found in all the 31 patients at the diagnosis of AS, but the majority of them had never received any proper treatment for AS. The malignancies of 31 AS patients included bladder cancer (7 cases), hematological malignancy (6 cases), lung cancer (5 cases), renal cancer (5 cases), prostate cancer (2 cases), carcinoma of renal pelvis (2 cases), breast cancer (2 cases), gastric carcinoma (2 cases), rectal cancer (2 cases), neuroendocrine carcinoma (2 cases), colon carcinoma (1 case), and esophagus cancer (1 case).

There is risk of malignancy in AS. Malignancy is not rare in patients with AS. Bladder cancer is the most common one followed by hematological malignancy. In consequence, close attention should be paied to the conditon of AS with malignancy in clinical practice.