Cancer incidence in Behçet's disease

Previous studies demonstrated an increased cancer risk in autoimmune diseases. Behçet's disease (BD) was also reported to be associated with an increased risk of cancer, although the data is limited.

In this study, we aimed to assess cancer incidence in a large cohort of BD patients and to compare with the data of the same age and gender groups.

The study cohort consisted of BD patients of > 18 years of age who were prospectively recorded in the Hacettepe University Vasculitis Center. Data on any cancer was collected from the patient files. Cancer incidence was compared with age- and gender-specific cancer incidence rates of the normal population retrieved from the 2014 Turkish National Cancer Registry (TNCR) data using standardized incidence rates (SIR).

Totally, 451 adult cases with BD were included. The median age of the cohort was 43 (20-75), and 52.5% of the patients were males. Eleven cancer cases were observed during a median of 124 months follow-up. Behçet's disease was associated with an increase in cancer risk compared with expected counts in the corresponding age and sex group (SIR 2.84, 95% CI 1.50-4.94, p < 0.001). Patients with papulopustular lesions had a trend toward a decreased risk of cancer (p = 0.060), and patients using azathioprine had a significantly decreased cancer risk (p = 0.031).

This study revealed BD patients had approximately three times increased cancer risk compared with corresponding age and sex groups. Besides the routine care, increased attention for cancer surveillance is required in the follow-up of BD patients.