[Occurrence of malignancy in patients with biopsy-proven temporal arteritis]

A woman of 79 years was admitted to our hospital because of headache and high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Temporal artery biopsy demonstrated giant cell arteritis and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs were effective. Another woman of 69 years was admitted because of headache, high ESR, and polymyalgia. Temporal arteritis (TA) with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) was established in biopsy of the temporal artery, and steroid therapy was effective. In our hospital, a third patient of 81 years was also suffering from TA with PMR, but temporal artery biopsy was not performed. Those three cases were followed for several years after the diagnosis of TA. Two years later, cancer in cervix of uterus was diagnosed in first case, and acute myelogenous leukemia in second case. However, such symptoms were not observed in third case. These findings and recently described reports suggest that the patients with biopsy-proven TA may have an increased risk of developing malignancy.