Cancer risk in patients with Behçet disease: A nationwide population-based dynamic cohort study from Korea

Background Many studies have shown a link between inflammation and cancer development. However, there are few studies regarding the correlation between Behcet disease (BD) and cancer. Objectives To determine the overall cancer risk and risk for specific cancers in patients with BD. Methods Patients with BD (n = 14,137; mean age, 44.2 ± 12.5 years; male patients, 32.4%) without known previous cancer were selected from the Korean National Health Insurance Database between 2007 and 2014. An age- and sex-matched control population of individuals without BD was randomly sampled at a ratio of 10:1. Both cohorts were followed for incident cancer until 2015. Results Overall, cancer was newly diagnosed in 451 patients with BD (3.19%) and 3975 controls (2.81%) during the follow-up period. Patients with BD showed a significantly higher risk for cancer compared with the controls (hazard ratio [HR], 1.134; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.029-1.25), leukemia (HR, 5.801; 95% CI, 3.24-10.385), lymphoma (HR, 2.584; 95% CI, 1.559-4.283), oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer (HR, 2.113; 95% CI, 1.102-4.052), thyroid cancer (HR, 1.256; 95% CI, 1.05-1.501), and prostate cancer (HR, 1.784; 95% CI, 1.141-2.791). Limitations The treatment or severity of diseases in each individual was not examined. Conclusions Patients with BD had a higher risk for overall cancer compared with controls without BD. Physicians should carefully monitor patients with BD for the potential development of malignancies.