Malignancy in patients with sarcoidosis

The relationship between sarcoidosis and malignancy is not clear yet. We retrospectively evaluated 131 sarcoidosis patients followed-up at the single Rheumatology center. The incidence of malignancies was investigated in this cohort. A total of 6 (4.6%) patients with malignancy were identified in our cohort of 131 patients with sarcoidosis. Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) was detected in three patients, followed by one patient with breast cancer, one patient with thyroid cancer and one patient with testicular cancer. All patients had chronic sarcoidosis with pulmonary involvement, and only 1 patient had acute sarcoidosis with Löfgren's syndrome. HL developed concomitantly with sarcoidosis in one patient while other two patients developed disease before and after sarcoidosis diagnosis. Two patients with solid tumors developed malignancy years before sarcoidosis diagnosis, while one patient developed thyroid cancer during sarcoidosis follow-up. All 6 sarcoidosis-malignancy patients survived after six year years follow up. We found low incidence of malignancy in patients with sarcoidosis in our small cohort. The sarcoidosis-malignancy relationship can only be a coincidence and/or can be explained by a common pathogenesis. New prospective studies involving large patients series are needed in this regard.